An oration delivered on the fourth of July, 1861 : before the municipal authorities of the city of Boston

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OE A T I O N

DELIN'KKBD ON THE

FOUETH OF JULY, 1861,

THE MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES

CITY OF BOSTON^.

BY THEOPHILUS PAESONS.

B S T 1^ :

J. E. EAEWELL & CO., CITY PRINTEES,

No. 32 CoNGKESs Street.

18 6 1.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In Common Council, July 5, 1861.
Eesolved : That the thanks of the City Council are hereby
presented to the Hon. Thbophilus Parsons for his very elo-
quent and patriotic Oration before the Municipal Authorities
of the City of Boston on the occasion of the Eighty-fifth Anni-
versary of the Declaration of the Independence of the Unitotl
States of America, and that he be requested to furnish a
copy for publication.

Sent up for concurrence.

JOSEPH H. BRADLEY, President.

In Board of Aldei-men, July 8, 1861.
Concurred.

SILAS PEIRCE, Chairman.

Approved, July 10, 1861.

JOSEPH M. WIGHTMAN, Mayor.

OEATION

ORATION

Our fathers, in acquiring at great loss of life and
treasure, their independence from England, had no
intention and no desire to escape from government.
They knew, for they were wise, that the absence of all
government from masses of men is an absolute impos-
sibility. They knew that anarchy itself is govern-
ment; the government of passion, of selfishness, of
folly intensified into madness ; of wickedness devel-
oped to its highest power, and given up to the fearful
work of self-punishment. They knew that govern-
ment was not only necessary, but inevitable. And all
their efforts were bent towards establishing the best
government.

They were wise men. The annals of human
thought exhibit nowhere a more profound, acute, far-
reaching, and all-embracing sagacity on the subject of
human government, than some of the writings of that
day. But, if it was of Divine Providence that at this
most important juncture in the history of mankind
there should be wise and faithful men, able to cast

upon the great topic before them all the light to be
derived from the continued efforts of powerful minds,
prepared by a careful study of the past, and invig-
orated by a deep and constant sense of the immeas-
urable importance of their vi^ork, that vs^as but one of
the means which that Providence employed for a
great end.

I do not forget that the recognitions of our pecu-
liar advantages which the return of this day invite, are
apt to run into boasting and harmful self-glorification.
I would remember this and avoid it. But I must not
refrain from expressing to you my belief, my most
deliberate, long and carefully considered, and most
profound conviction, that it has been, and is, the
purpose of Him who holds in His almighty hand
the destinies of men and nations, to establish, here,
a prosj^erous nation, under a better form of govern-
ment than has ever before existed, or now exists
elsewhere. But all the purposes of Providence which
are wrought through the instrumentality of men, are
to a certain extent delivered to their free agency,
and may therefore be retarded and obstructed by the
wrongful exercise of that free agency. And it will
be my endeavor to-day to direct your attention to a
few, and only a few, of what seem to me the footsteps
of Omnipotence along the pathway to the great pur-
pose I have indicated ; to point out to you some of the
obstacles which resist, and some of the perils which

threaten this great purpose, and some of our duties
in relation to them.

Let us begin with the inquiry, what the best gov-
ernment must be ; and the answer may be, in one
word, self-government. On this topic, as on so many
others, we may be helped by remembering that as a
nation is composed of men, it cannot contain any
other elements of national character than those which
are contributed by the men of the nation. And when
we look at men individually and from the study of
human character, reach certain definite laws and con-
clusions concerning human life in the individual, we
may well hope tliat these laws and conclusions will
throw some light upon analogous questions as they
exist in reference to a nation.

What, then, is the best government for the indi-
vidual'? If I put the question in another shape —
if I ask whether he is best governed who is surren-
dered to his own fantasies and proclivities and lusts,
and exasperates all these by utter unrestraint, and
makes no reference to right or wrong, or the law of
God or the law of man, the question answers itself.
I am describing a man who has done all that he can
do to become only a wild beast. Better were it for
him that some arm of power should hold him, some
fear restrain him, some irresistible command control
him, and all these influences compel him to decent
conduct. Then, it might at least be possible that his

10

lusts and follies, because they were repressed, would
be enfeebled. Then it might again be possible that
the severity of external control could be safely re-
laxed ; that some acknowledgment of law, some
thought of right, would begin to exert a power
within him, and thereby facilitate the entrance of yet
better thoughts and higher motives, and that this
advancing and ascending progress might go on, until
a control from within accepted and welcomed a con^
trol from without as a necessary help. And the con-
summation of all this would come when the law of
truth, of right, and of instructed conscience was all
the law he needed, all the law he felt ; and this law
put him at ease with the system of law prevailing all
around him, and the man stood and lived in perfect
peace with the law and perfect peace with himself.

This is but an ideal picture ; far from the reality
existing in the best of us. It is, however, a picture
of that last result towards which we are led by all
moral improvement, all elevation of motive, all recog-
nition of the authority of right, and all confirma-
tion of our love of goodness.

I have ventured to present to you this picture,
because I camiot but think that the history of the
past and the condition of the present lead to the con-
clusion that a law and method of progress, somewhat
analogous at least, prevail in the growth of nations.
History is but the biography of Man ; and the lessons

11

wliich are taught by the life of Man cannot be alto-
gether remote and diverse from those we may gather
from the lives of men.

To see how the progress of mankind has accorded
Avith these principles, we must go far back towards
the beginning, and in an address like this it is of
course impossible to give more than the most cursory
glance at the evidence which the pages of history
offer. But even this glance will show us that while
government was known only as unmitigated despotism
in the Eastern and ancient world, it received impor-
tant modifications as it passed through Greece ; and
that the despotism of the central power of the vast
Empire of Rome was accompanied with a singular
amount of freedom and self-government in the cities
and boroughs and lesser provinces into which the
Eoman Empire was divided. In this way some prep-
aration was made for the feudal system, which Avas,
in theory, a goA^ernment of laws and not of men, for
it assigned his own place and his own rights to every
man. And so the possibility of deliverance from a
whoUy external control, from a power which was
over him and against him, instead of within him
and his own, grew from age to age. At length this
neAV world was discovered. Near enough to the old
world to receive colonists with no more hindrance
and difficulty than were needed to sift out the AAoak
from the strong, that the seed of a new nation might

12

have due vitality. Far enough from the old world
to prevent an immediate and controlling influence
from stretching across the waters and causing the
future to be but a repetition of the past ; far enough
to permit the germs of nations planted here to grow
up into the great possibility which awaited them.
And then the hour came, and the last word of God's
providence in human government was uttered when
he said to a great nation, " Go forth, be free, and

GOVERN YOURSELVES."

The last word'? Yes. I so believe, if we are
not deaf to it. In the infinite future there may be
and will be vast changes and infinite improvements.
These will lessen, or remedy, or prevent many evils
which we already discern, and many more which
we do not yet discern, in our republican institutions,
and whatever good has yet come, or may now be
hoped for from these institutions, will be increased
a thousand fold, as they are changed for the better.
But the nations will never again regard as the only
possible or desirable government, that of a power
distinct from the people, and deriving no force and
no life from their consent and voluntary recognition.
The work we have begun will not be suppressed and
extinguished. It will live, and it will grow into the
fulness of its stature ; and that it may live and grow,
the wants, the deficiencies, and the errors of any age
will be disclosed by whatever lessons may be necessary

13

to teach them, and will be remedied by whatever
means are then found best for that purpose.

Govern yourselves ! But how ? This great work
may be done well or ill. It may be so done that the
influences of evil which mar it may gradually be
discovered, resisted, and suppressed. And then the
future of this country will be one of gradual improve-
ment, which will be on the whole constant, although
subject to alternations ; to periods when evil will seem
to be in the ascendant ; to nights so long and so dark
that for the time they extinguish the hope that day
can come again. And yet a new day will dawn, the
brighter for the preceding darkness. Or this work
may be so done that these influences of evil will
more than mar it, — will prevail against it, and it
will be taken from our hands and those of our chil-
dren, and given to others who will profit by our
example and by its fearful consequences.

Of the perils which beset us in this point of vieAv,
I would speak of one only, for that seems near to us,
already obvious, and possibly growing. It is that
which comes from the enormous fallacy that the will
of the people constitutes and determines right and
originates the authority of law. But what is law if
it be not truth in its application and its power ; and
how else can the right be determined but by the
truth] Can any man, can any men, make truth]

What then is left for us] To rejoice that it is

u

given to us, to search in freedom for the truth, and
for the right which the truth teaches, to find it, to
make it our law, to reverence it, and to obey it.
Precisely that form and system of political govern-
ment is then the best which is best adapted to guide
and facilitate the inquiry after the right; to insure
with perfect freedom of inquiry, sufficient deliber-
ation, and the absence of obscuring passion and per-
sonal fantasy, and all the advantage of mutual counsel,
and all the security we can have that the law, when
it is duly made, shall express the common judgment
of the people, and promote their common interests,
and deserve their respect and win their love.

This is the great end of republican institutions.
And I have now to say to you, not as the expression
of an opinion called for by the day, but, again as a
deliberate and profound belief, that the peculiar con-
stitution of this country in its essential feature, in the
fact that it is a sovereignty formed of sovereignties,
is a frame of government better adapted to accom-
plish the work of republican government than any
other which has been devised by human wisdom.
Nor, indeed, do I say all that I think when I use
these words, for I do not think that our present form
of government was altogether devised by human wis-
dom. On the contrary, I suppose its most essential
characteristic was accepted from necessity ; was re-
ceived because it was prepared by the course of

15

events, and as it were forced upon the framers of our
constitution. Tliey did not choose it, for they were
not at libertj' to reject it. They took it, they used it,
for it was there in their hands, and they could not
lay it aside. We could become nothing else than a
State formed of States ; a Sovereignty formed of
Sovereignties.

This very peculiar feature in our national constitu-
tion is wholly without precedent. There have been
leagues and alliances and confederacies all through
history. But our own constitution attempted some-
thing more than this, — something more than ever
was attempted before. It endeavored to constitute a
nation out of political elements which still retained
to a great extent, and in most important particulars,
their own independent sovereignty.

I am not aware that European political writers
have exei regarded this as anything but a source of
weakness and danger. A necessity, perhaps, which
there was no way to avoid ; which was still, under
favorable circumstances, as our history proves, com-
patible with great prosperity, but which was always
a source of weakness and of danger, which the first
powerful assault would fatally reveal. Nor have our
own writers expressed different sentiments. It is well
known that some or indeed many of the ablest of
the men who framed our Constitution were full of
fear on this very ground, and some in public and

16

some in private, spolie of it as the best they could
make, and as something which might at least last
for a time, and open the way for a better.

No such opinion, no such feeling have I; for, on
the contrary, precisely this peculiarity of our consti-
tution, that it makes us a nation composed of States
which preserve watchfully and wisely their own
rights and powers, seems to me the corner-stone of
our prosperity, and the foundation on which our
hopes may rest.

It is my belief that the system of government
formed by the Constitution' of the United States,
is not to be regarded as, upon the Avhole, the best
thing which circumstances permitted our fathers to
construct, but as in itself, near to the perfection of
a republican government.

For this belief, I am well aware that I can quote
no authority and rest upon no precedent ; and I
should be glad to give all my reasons for it. .But, in
the time which I may occupy to-day, this is impos-
sible. Let me try however to intimate some of the
grounds for my belief, by a reference to our own
State Constitution ; and I use the word now as in-
cluding not only the written Constitution, but the
complex of all the institutions of our beloved
Commonwealth. Asking you then for the moment
to forget, what we ought not always to forget, the
faults and errors, the perversions and corruptions

17

still existiug among us, let us look at our whole
polity, as if it were precisely all that it should be.

The first form of uniou for a common regulation
is in the family. And all our citizens who are not
exceptions to a prevailing method live in families ;
and it is there that the work of government begins ;
there its first lessons are formed ; there its habits are
formed ; there its first fruits are gathered ; and there,
if that government is wise and good, those fruits
are peace and happiness and mutual assistance and
universal improvement.

But families need that duties should be performed
and advantages secured which demand combination,
and the strength and support of united counsel,
and united action; and to this end, families com-
bine into townships or cities. To the town or city,
as an organization, are committed all these duties
and utilities the need of which has called them
into being, and to the town or city is freely in-
trusted all the power requisite to a full and com-
plete discharge of all those duties.

And then the same principle is further applied.
Beyond those of the towns and cities are again
common duties and utilities which are all those of
a certain district; and within this district the towns
coalesce into counties, to which again as separate
organizations are confided the duties which can be
best discharged in this way and by this means, and

18

with these duties goes all the power requisite to the
best performance of them.

Nor is this principle then arrested. For the coun-
ties are gathered into one body, and this is the State.
And who are they who then form the State — who
constitute the State ? The people, and the whole
people. They who first form its families, and then its
towns and cities and counties, finally, in their widest
assemblage, form the State. And for what do they
form it ? Precisely for all those duties and all those
utilities which embrace the whole people, which re-
quire for their due performance a due regard to the
whole people, and which may serve not only to cement
us all together by a common interest, a common safety,
and a common prosperity, but may use the strength
of the whole for the protection of each, and for the
preservation of all personal rights, and family rights,
and all the rights of those lesser and larger communi-
ties into which families and persons are gathered.

And then what power do the people who constitute
the State give to it 1 Abundant power to discharge
all its duties ; to do the whole of its work of legisla-
tion for the Avhole, and of common defence and pro-
tection through all the departments of government ;
but nothing more. This, then, is the theory of our
State polity; and so far as we are wise, this it is in
active operation; and so far as we are truly prosper-
ous, this prosperity is its effect.

19

And now let me ask if the thought ever entered into
the mind of a human being, that it would be wise for
Massachusetts to abandon to-morrow all town and
city and county lines and organizations, and commit
all the duties now performed by their means to the
central power of the State. There is no one of you
who can imagine such a thing. And he who should
desire it must, if he would be consistent, go yet far-
ther, and propose also to obliterate all family lines,
all family organization and authority, and ask of the
central power to determine what food shall be placed
on every table and what clothes every member of the
household shall wear.

The absurdity of such a supposition is so enor-
mous that it seems almost equally absurd to think
about it or to speak of it. And yet I will ask you
to pardon me while I state why the supposition of
such a change in our form of government is so
absurd. It is because we all feci instinctively, if not
consciously, that our present form of government is
perfectly adapted to the great end of all republican
government, and that is, a wise self-government; and
the reason of this adaptation is, that it leaves to the
individual, with the least possible control or inter-
ference, the freedom of voluntary choice and action.
And it gathers individuals into communities, the
least, the larger, and at length the largest, only so
far as a common necessity and a common good require

20

this. And then it seeks so to form these communi-
ties and so to provide for them, and so to act by its
common legislation upon individuals and the bodies
into which they are gathered, as to lead and guide
each and all into that conduct which shall be best for
each and for all, with the least possible compulsory
action upon any. I have endeavored to illustrate my
theory by a reference to our own Commonwealth, and
to give a reason for my opinion, because I wished to
prepare you for the question I have noAv to ask. It
is, when Massachusetts and her sister States came
together and formed a nation, what else did they but
take a step further forward upon the same pathway,
which our own State does so well and so wisely in
treading for herself? It seems to me that it was pre-
cisely this step and no other which was taken when
the Constitution of the United States was formed,
and this nation was born.

I know that I may be met at once by the objection
that our general government is, after all, but a qual-
ified and imperfect government. I may be reminded
that it was from Massachusetts that the amendment
came which expressly declares that all powers not
given, are withheld. And then it may be asked is
there not here a manifest division of sovereignty and
of power, and does not this show that much is wanting
— that all which is retained at home is wanting — to
constitute the full strength of a national government 1

21

My answer is twofold. First, I say, the national
government has at this moment, by force of the Con-
stitution, all the strength — absolutely all — which it
needs, or could profitably use, as a central national
government. I answer next, that by the admirable
provisions of our Constitution, the reserved powers
of every State may be, and, so far as that State does
its duty, will be, prepared and developed to their
utmost efficiency, and then imparted to the nation
in its need.

Do we want a proof and illustration of all this ]
Very recent events have supplied one, which his-
tory will not forget, if we do. How happened it
that, a few weeks since, when the general govern-
ment seemed to be feeble, and was in peril, and the
demand — I may well say the cry — for help came
forth — why it was that Massachusetts was the first to
spring to the rescue t Why was it that she was able,
in four days from that in which this cry reached her,
to add a new glory to the day of Lexington 1 Why
was it that she could begin that offering of needed
aid which has since poured itself in a full, and
swollen, and rushing stream, into the Avar power of the
national government ? Even as I ask the question, the
answer is in all your minds. It is, that Massachusetts
could do this because she had done her own duty
beforeh-and. She could do this because, within her
own bounds, she had prepared and organized her own

■32

strength, and stood ready for the moment when she
could place it in the outstretched hands of the gov-
ernment. And other States followed, offering their
contributions with no interval — with almost too little
of delay ; with a haste which was sometimes precipi-
tation ; with an importunate begging for acceptance
— all of it yet far behind the earnest desire and de-
mand of the people of these States, until at length
we stood before an astonished world the strongest
government on the face of the earth.

I used this very phrase three months ago, when
all was dark enough. I said so then, and when
perils thicken and reverses come, (and come they
must, for no human government can wholly escape
them,) I shall say so still, because my theory of our
constitution, and my understanding of its purpose
and its adaptation to its purpose, lead me to hope
very confidently that our national government, as
the organ of a nation endowed with self-govern-
ment, will prove to be invested with the nation's
might, to be used for the nation's good, in whatever
way may prove to be the best.

Stronger therefore for all the purposes to which
our national government should apply its strength,
stronger for all the good it can do and all the harm
it can prevent, that government is, as it is now con-
structed, and because it is so constructed, than it could
be if it AAore the single central, consolidated po^\er

23

of other nations. And it will show its strength, not
by preventing all checks and reverses, for that is im-
possible ; but, as I believe, in a prompt and thorough
recovery from them.

When we remember that our government is a new
experiment, let us remember that a new work was
to be done, and for that work a new instrument was
required. The period in the progress of mankind
had been reached, when a government was to be
formed, which should possess and in time of need
be able to exert, the force of the nation for national
purposes, and the combined power of its component
parts for all these purposes which embrace the in-
terests of all, and yet leave each of these parts,
States, cities, families, and individiials, in the utmost
possible freedom to enjoy the blessing and discharge
the duty of self-government.

When before, where else has this ever been the
design of government ? And now, after nearly a
century of experience, where lives the man who will
dare to say that he could devise for the accomplish-
ment of this design a frame of government better
adapted in its essential principles and in its general
forms, than that which we possess ?

A failure ! One must know far more of history
than I have been able to learn, who can point to me
one instance where a new political instrument for a
new work was created and put in operation, with no

•24

direct help from experience ; and this instrument
hore, in its operation, such testimony to the sagacity
of its framers.

We hear the outcry of " State rights," and we reply
with our watchword of " national unity ; " and it is
difficult to believe that there is not between the prin-
ciples implied in these phrases something of discord-
ance, something of antagonism. But when did our
own city, or any of the communities of our Common-
wealth, lament that the central power of the State
could not come within their precincts, and exercise
their specific powers for the discharge of their specific
duties 1 Who has ever imagined that our Common-
wealth was weak because its families, towns and cities
and counties were well ordered communities, within
their own spheres independent, or, if you please,
sovereign"? Who has ever imagined that a county,
a city, a town, a family, because it has reserved rights,
which the central power is bound to respect and pre-
serve, has therefore a right at its own pleasure and
in its own way to separate from the rest and dissolve
the unity of the whole"? Who, that has ever given a
thought to the subject, has not known that our Com-
monwealth is none the less One because it is thus
composed of distinct elements, and is, for this very
reason, irresistible in the might which it can exert
in its own wide sphere for the good and the safety
of all? And I insist that the great Commonwealth,

25

formed of all the States, is also One, and also strong
and irresistible within its own all-embracing sphere,
because it is formed on precisely the same principles,
and for this reason, and in this way, possesses of right
all the force of its united sovereignties ; and possesses
this in fact, where there is not rebellion. If this
seems too trustful, too hopeful a faith in the Consti-
tution which our fathers have given us, glance with
me for a moment at the long course of antecedents
by which it was prepared and built up, and possibly
we may find there also some grounds upon which the
faith may rest.

The colonies of North America were formed in
rapid succession, and were scattered all along our
seaboard. They were formed, to some extent, by
difi"erent kinds of people, who came not all from one
country nor moved by the same impulse, and they
brought with them different characteristics. They
were planted at distances which permitted them, in-
dependently, or, at least, without much assimilating
influence of one upon another, to grow up, each in
its own way, each under its own circumstances, and
each to develop its own peculiarities. And yet they
were near enough, and similar enough, to seek and to
have much intercourse, and to render to each other
much assistance. As time passed on, they found it
desirable, in some instances, to unite and coalesce
under a common government, and in others, to form

■26

alliances for mutual assistance and protection. And
in this way some unity of feeling and of interest,
and some tendency to community of action, grew up.
And these experiences undoubtedly facilitated, and
perhaps I might say made possible, their united action
in their efforts to obtain independence.

As the feeling that independence must be won, and
would be worth all that it might cost, grew stronger
and more general, it became evident to the far-sighted
and the patriotic that there must be some concert of
action. In June, 176.5, James Otis, of Boston, advised
the calling of an American Congress. But this
measure met with much opposition, and for a time
it seemed as if there could be no union. Then South
Carolina responded to Massachusetts, and declared for
union ! In New York, those who held similar views
established a newspaper, called the Constitutional Cou-
rant, Avhich had much influence. It bore for its motto
the words, first used by Franklin nearly ten years
before, " Join or Die." Never was the guiding truth
of a great emergency expressed more emphatically or
in fewer words. Join or die. This was indeed the
great truth of that day, of every day since then, and
of the very hour in which we live. Other States
acceded, and on the 7th of October, 1765, the first
Congress, consisting of delegates regularly appointed
from six States, with others, representing three more,
assembled at New York. Of the doings of this Con-

gress I have only time to say, that thc)' strengthened
and diffused the desire for united action. And as the
necessity became greater and more apparent, at length
what is called the Continental Congress, assembled
in Philadelphia on the 5th of September, 177J:, and
then on the 10th of ISIay, 1775. Still, so great was
the jealousy of a central power, that nothing but the
peril of impending war, and its pressure when it came,
held even this Congress of delegates together. But
they did hold together ; and it Avas this Congress
which, on the 15th of June, 1775, appointed Wash-
ington Commander-in-Chief of the Continental army,
and on the 4th day of July, 1776, declared our
Independence.

In that declaration these two elements of the unity
of the whole and the sovereignty of the parts were
mingled. It begins, " When it becomes necessary
for ONE PEOPLE to dissolve the political borLds which
have connected them with another," and at its close
declares that the former colonies are " free and inde-
pendent States." There they stood, free from all
external dominion, and as independent of each other
as of England.

In eight days from the 4th of July the articles
of confederation were reported to Congress by a com-
mittee of the delegates, but were not adopted by Con-
gress and proposed to the States for ratification until
the following year; nor were they tinnlly ratified by

28

the States until March, 1781: or until five years had
elapsed.

And yet, in 1777, Washington, when, at Morris-
town in New Jersey, he found himself in the midst,
if not of treason, of an indifl^erence which was hard-
ening into treason, by proclamation required all who
had received protections from the British commander
to surrender them and take an oath of allegiance to
the United States ! United, when and how were
they united 1 In Congress he Avas censured. In the
legislature of New Jersey it was declared that the re-
quired oath encroached upon the prerogatives of the
State, and that it was absurd to swear allegiance to the
United States before even a confederacy was formed.
But even then Washington was justified by the lan-
guage of the Declaration of Independence ; even then
were these States united in the contemplation of the
good and the wise, and most of all in the heart of him
who was best among the good and wisest among the
wise.

The articles of confederation did not even purport
to make of us a nation. If they are studied, they will
prove the earnest desire of some at least of those who
drew them, that we might become a nation. But they
stopped so far short of this as to form of the States
only a confederacy. These articles were skilfully
drawn, and gave to the Central Government all the
power which the States could then be induced to part

29

Avitli. Some semblance — something indeed of the
substance of national power was given ; although
there was no regular legislative, executive, or judi-
cial department. Probably all the power was given
to Congress that it was thought necessary that it
should possess to do the work that lay before it.
This work it did, well and thoroughly ; for while the
thirteen States were held together by the presence
of a common enemy, a common Avar and a common
necessity, the articles of confederation sufficed to
make that war triumphant ; but they sufficed for this,
because the sagacity and singleness of purpose of
the men who wielded the powers of government, the
patriotism of the people, and the wisdom and con-
stancy of Washington supplied — so far at least as
was needed for success — all deficiencies.

Then came peace, and it was soon apparent that the
want of unity in the nation, and of power in the gov-
ernment and its organs, not only prevented the deep
wounds of the war from healing, but seemed even to
aggravate all the mischiefs which followed, and which
made the first years of peace no years of returning
prosperity. The central government no longer sus-
tained and invigorated by the war, found itself utterly
unable to prevent or to avenge insults and outrages to
our flag : it could not even repel the incursion of the
savages on our borders ; it could not pay the interest
of our national debt ; it had no credit, no force, no

30

vital energy, and it may well be said to have died of
inherent weakness, for in 1787 it abrogated its own
functions, declared its inability to act as the govern-
ment of a nation, and it appealed to the ultimate
source of all political power — the people of the whole
country. And then came the convention of 1787.
When they met, there was in that assembly as much
of sagacity, of varied intellectual accomplishment and
resource, and of earnest devotion to duty as ever co-
operated in a great work. And with all these mingled
as little of folly and weakness, as little personal ambi-
tion, as little self-seeking of any kind, and as little of
the disturbing force which these ignoble qualities
would exert, as was possible under the conditions of
humanity.

If, in saying that the articles of confederation
carried this country successfully through the war of
independence, I give them high praise, I believe that
I give them still higher when I say that they made
the National Constitution possible. These articles
familiarized the minds of the whole country to the
idea of united action and a central government. They
proved indisputably the immense ad^■antages which
might be obtained thereb)- ; and they proved as cer-
tainly that to secure all these advantages, it was
absolutely necessary that the nation should have a
greater unit}' than they gave to it, and the central
goAcrnment more power. And, aided and illustrated

81

by the course of events, they produced a general
impression, especially among leading minds, every-
where, that there might be a stricter national unity,
and a stronger central government, without absorbing
or imperilling those State rights which were de-
servedly dear to the people of every State. Thus it
was that this jealous love for the sovereign rights of
the several States yielded slowly, reluctantly, and only
step by step, to the inevitable necessity for closer
union. It was, at the beginning, paramount and
absolute. But it yielded, not, I rejoice that I can say,
until it was suppressed or overcome, but until it stood
in just equilibrium with the prevailing sense of the
need and the good of a national existence and a
national government. Then these tAvo sentiments, or
principles, met and co-operated ; and the result was
the Constitution of the United States. And this, I
again declare, I regard not merely as the best which
could then have been made, but as, in itself good,
and very good, and the best for the good of the
whole nation which could have been made, by any
men, under any circumstances.

Are you to understand me as saying that I consider
that this Constitution came into being in itself perfect,
and in itself able to go forward forever, the instru-
ment of a great nation's growth, prosperity, and hap-
piness, with no more help, with no new influences to
bear upon it and give to it added life and energy.

32

and efficiency^ I mean no such thing. It needed
more, a vast deal more, before it could become— what
I think it is to be — a permanent instrument of the
greatest, the highest, and the completest political
good.

The problem to be solved in the establishment of
this government, or as it may be better said, in the
formation of this nation, vs^as to create the best possi-
ble form of a repubUcan government by the perfect
reconciliation of the two elements of central power
and reserved rights.

In other words of the same meaning, the problem
was to create a system of government which should
arm the central power with all the force which it could
usefully exert, and yet leave to all whom it gathered
within its wide embrace the utmost possible freedom
for self-government, and the strongest assurance that
this freedom should be guarded but not weakened,
protected but not impaired.

This was done by the Constitution, as far as written
words could do it. For after all our experience, at
this day no words could mend that Constitution in this
respect ; none could make this balance of forces more
perfect. But another thing could be done, and re-
mained to be done. It was to fix the meaning of this
Constitution by practical construction. To fasten on
the public mind the conviction, and fill with it the
public heart, that our Constitution meant, on the one

33

hand, a preservation of State rights, and on the other
indissohible National Unity. To root this conviction
into the pnblic life firmly, so that no storm could
shake it, so that no devastating force could rend it awav.
It may not be possible to prevent these two elements
from sometimes, during the ages that will come, rising
separately into undue prominence. At one time, or by
one body or class, the national unity may be urged
until it threatens consolidation, and at another time
the principle of State rights may again assert itself
too stronsj'lv. But their reconciliation is hereafter to
be so established not by the written Constitution only
but by the constitution of the public sentiment and
the public will, that it will stand, even as our conti-
nent stands upon its rocky base, no more to be moved
from its foundation than our continent is moved by
the two great oceans which beat upon its shores.

And it is precisely this work which the war that
is upon us has come to do.

These two elements stood there, as I have said,
ready to be combined by the framers of the Consti-
tution. The one, that of a jealous regard to State
rights, had grown with the growth of the colonies.
The other, the desire of nationality, had arisen from
neccessity, and, generally, I think, was accepted only
as a necessity. And at that time, these two principles
were diffused in about the same proportion in one
part of the country as in another. It is well known.

5

34

for example, that the Constitution was adopted with
as much reluctance in the North as in the South.
Those who are conversant with the history of those
days know that in our own Commonwealth the public
sentiment was strongly against it, and that it was
finally carried through only by the strenuous efforts
of those who desired its acceptance.

The Constitution was adopted, and soon began to
justify itself. I will not dwell upon the prosperity of
every kind which it gave to the nation. From day to
day, from age to age, it went on, far more beneficial in
its influence and operation than the most sangiiine of
those who framed it had dared to hope. It ministered
to our pride, it advanced our position among the
nations, it filled our hands with wealth and our hearts
with rejoicing, until, at last, there were perhaps none
left in the Free States who did not ascribe to our
nationality this marvellous prosperity.

Why was it not so elsewhere and everywhere ?
Had not the Slave States prospered also, and grown
from a' handful to a multitude, and risen as we had
risen from poverty and depression into wealth] Yes;
but not as we had grown. In the race we had gone
far beyond them. And forgetting all that they had-
gained from the common nationality, they felt that
they gained less than we had. Their actual gain
was thus a comparative loss ; and then they made,
or many among them made, the enormous mistake

35

of attributing this loss — this comparative failure
in the race of prosperity — to this common nation-
ality.

It was an enormous mistake, for this failure was
but to another cause. North and South entered upon
national existence, with a clog or hindrance com-
mon to both ; the hindrance, the misfortune of slavery.
There was undoubtedly, from the beginning, a differ-
ence between the two sections of this country in the
prevailing sentiment and belief concerning slavery.
And upon us, slavery pressed more lightly. We not
only felt it as an impediment, but Avere sure that it
was an evil, and favored by climate, and soil, and
the nature of our productions, we gradually but
rapidly cast it off.

They were not so favored. The influence of cir-
cumstances with us operated to make the slave
worthless, and left in full force the moral sentiment
which demanded his liberation. With them this
influence of circumstances made him valuable, and
soon very valuable, and conflicted with this senti-
ment, and overcame it, and ^at length, absolutely re-
versed it. And thus this evil thing, this mischief,
this misfortune, was fastened upon them.

May I not call it a misfortune 1 May I not remem-
ber that the fetters of the slave chain the master to
the slave 1 And that while they held fast the negro
in his bondage, they accepted their own? They ac-

36

cepted it with all its disastrous consequences ; all its
effects upon their material interests ; upon their polit-
ical and social condition ; upon their personal life ;
upon their very souls. They accepted it and more,
for at length they came to love it. And noAV becau,se
they love it, they cannot see that it is the cause of the
inferiority they deplore, and therefore they cast all
the blame of this upon our common nationality.

I know, and thankful am I that I know, that what
I have said does not apply to all who live in the
South. I know there are some, and I hope there are
many, even among the owners of slaves, who are not
led away by this delusion ; who do not love the slavery
of their fellow-men, nor their own slavery ; and who
find in the duties which grow out of this relation,
culture and nutriment for the sense of duty, and for
watchful kindness. And some there must be among
them who had hoped that our national unity would
exert a healthy influence, and would gradually make
slavery less evil, less mischievous, and finally remove
it altogether in whatever way might prove to be the
best.

Whatever may be noAv the sentiment of the South,
we have all possible evidence that there w^as no gen-
eral, no prevailing desire for disunion a short time
since. The incendiaries who kindled the fire in dark
corners, which had been skilfully prepared for the
torch, have fed it with falsehoods and delusions

37

unparalleled in the history of fraud. If they have
succeeded in making the conflagration general, they
have done so only by a craft which long practice has
made perfect, and an audacity seldom recorded in the
annals of crime. But their craft governs their au-
dacity, and they have never, to this day, at any point,
dared to present the question of rebellion to the
decision of an unfettered popular will. Assuredly
this fact has some significance. Assuredly it justi-
fies some hope, that when these fetters are broken
and the reign of terror ended, it will be found that
the breath of life is not wholly crushed out from the
patriotism of the South.

Be that as it may, we have our own work to do.
Through the influence of slavery in preparing the
mind of the South for the falsehoods and abuses
which have been practiced upon it, and through
the maddening influence of these abuses, the prin-
ciple of State Rights has been severed from the
principle of National Unity, and because so severed,
has in its excess and perversion produced treason
and rebellion, and thus these two principles instead
of co-operating in a harmony which would cause
each to strengthen the other, are now face to face,
at war.

At open war, now, for the first time, and for the
last time.

For the first time, because He who orders human

38

events has not permitted this conflict until our na-
tional unity has existed long enough to give to that
part of the nation which maintains it a deep sense
that it is the source and the safeguard of all our pros-
perity, and is worth all the price we can pay for it,
be that price what it may ; and not until it has also
given to that part of the nation a vast superiority
of power.

For the last time, because our just appreciation
of the value of that for which we fight will insure
our bringing to the conflict all the force we possess,
and therefore will make it certain that the great
principle for which we contend will, in the end,
be victorious.

Through whatever vicissitudes may await us,
through successes which will strengthen if they do
not deceive us, through reverses which will help us
if we learn their lessons, through all the alternations
of war, we may pass, but, in the end, to victory.

I am sure that I express but the common senti-
ment, the prevailing and habitual sentiment of all
around me, when I remind you that in every one of
the great exigencies of life, whether public or pri-
vate, we may be sure that it comes to teach its
lessons and do its good work. And that it is always
wise to endeavor to learn these lessons and co-
operate with this work.

One thing which we have to learn from what is

39

now going on, is the need of a government — the
blessing of a government if it be a good one, the
inestimable worth of the power we possess to make
our government what we would have it, and the duty
of every man, in every place, to use every power that
he possesses, in making that government what it
should be, in placing the powers of government in
fitting hands, and in rendering obedience to, and
cherishing a reverence and a love for, that authority
and that law, which we should make the embodiment
and the instrument of the public wisdom and the
public virtue. Are we not learning this lesson?

But there is yet another thing. It is to learn the
value of national unity. To fill our hearts with a
living and a wakeful sense of the great duty, the ines-
timable good of loyalty to our admirable Constitution.
Can we be blind and deaf and dead to this great duty]
When I ask this question, do I not ask whether we
can forget our fathers, whose blood is in our veins ;
our children, to whom we shall transmit a life not
worth the having, if we suffer this Constitution, our
Constitution and their Constitution, to be Aveakened,
disgraced, and broken into fragments ; our God, who
has laid on us the trust of leading nations yet unborn
along that glorious way upon which our footsteps
were the earliest"?

Xo, this cannot be ; I cannot look at it as pos-
sible ; I cannot fear it ; but if I could fear such a

40

calamity, my fear might spring from the apprehen-
sion, not that we can be ultimately defeated, but that
as the conflict goes on, in our painful sense of the
wrongs inflicted upon us and the wrongs threatened
us, in our exasperation at the insults we have to
endure, in the fever heat of our anger at the cost
and sacriflce and suffering caused by the persistent
madness and wickedness we resist, we may forget
that our chief aim and purpose, our first and
strongest hope, not to be abandoned so long as it
can possibly be held, and not to be defeated by our-
selves, is to defend and preserve our nationality in
its entireness. Are we not fighting for our Consti-
tution, fighting for our national existence, fighting to
restore, to re-establish, to re-consecrate our Union'?

It is one of the excellent characteristics of this very
Constitution and Government that, while they make
all possible provision and organize all necessary
strength for all the purposes of government, there
is in it no desire, no purpose, no provision, and no
place for conquest and subjugation. If ever there
was a nation fighting in self-defence, we are that
nation now. And there are those who are now most
earnest in that cause, not in the North only, but in the
South. We at the North, by the outpouring of our
treasure, by organizing our men, and sending them to
battle ; and some, at the South, and again I say many,
as I hope and believe, by their sympathy, which can-

41

not be altogether paralyzed, although its voice is now
stifled, and by a comdction that we are fighting for
them and not against them ; by earnest wishes that
we may succeed, and so succeed that we may soon
give that voice freedom of utterance, and enable those
wishes to spring forth into concerted action.

Then let us do our work. Let us do it without
stay or stint, without one moment's thought of stay
or stint, until it is all done. Let us organize and send
forth our soldiers until the strong hands that guide
our armies can hold no more. Let us pour forth out
money until all who arm in our cause are supplied
with all possible means of efiiciency, of safety, and
of comfort. Let us pour forth our very hearts and
souls in the combat until that combat ends in victory.
The more thoroughly this work is done, the more
beneficial it will be to us and to those with whom we
are now contending. And let us so do this work, that
when it is fully and completely done, when rebellion
has, with its last breath, called itself by its true name,
and every thought of secession lies buried in a grave
from which there can be no resurrection, then our
own Massachusetts, as she was the first to spring to
the battle, so, when she can sheathe the sword, by
which, faithful to her chosen motto,* she has sought
for the repose and peace of liberty, then will she be
the first to hold forth an unarmed hand to returning

* Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem.
6

4-2

brethren ; and will cordially incite them to take and
hold their fnll share of all our constitutional rights,
and unite with us in forming a great nation, which
shall be the home of freedom and the hope of the
world.

O E A T I O N

DELIVERED ON THE

FOURTH OF JULY, 1862,

BEFORE

THE MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES

OF THE

CITY OF BOSTON^

BY GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS.

BOSTON:
J. E. FAEWELL AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE CITY,

No. 37 COMGRBSS Street.

1862.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In Board of Aldermen, July 7, 1862.

Ordered: That the thanks of the City Council are hereby
presented to the Hon. George T. Curtis for his very eloquent
and patriotic Oration before the Municipal Authorities of the
City of Boston on the occasion of the Eighty-sixth Anniversary
of the Declaration of the Independence of the United States of
America, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for publi-
cation.

Passed : Sent down for concurrence.

THOMAS P. RICH, Chairman.

In Common Council, July 10, 1862.

Concurred.

JOSHUA D. BALL, President.

Approved, July 11, 1862.

JOSEPH M. WIGHTMAN, Mayor.

A true copy.

Attest: SAMUEL F. McCLEAEY, City Clerk.

ORATION.

Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the City Council :

Had I felt at liberty to consult my own inclination
alone, I should have asked you to excuse me from
taking part in the proceedings of this day. At a
much earlier period of life, I enjoyed the distinction
of being placed on the long roll of those who have
successively spoken to the people of Boston, at the
bidding of their municipal authorities, on this our
national anniversary. At this particular juncture, I
could well have desired to be spared from the per-
formance of any such public duty. I had prepared
myself to bear what is now upon us, in silence and
obscurity ; doing the infinitely little that I may, to
alleviate personal suffering, sustaining the hopes of
those who are nearest to me, and endeavoring to cher-
ish in my own breast a living faith in the strength
and perpetuity of our republican forms of govern-
ment.

But private wishes are nothing — private tastes are
nothing — in the presence of great public trials and

dangers. We cannot, if we would, escape the respon-
sibilities which such trials and dangers entail upon
us. If we fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, the
thought of our country is with us there. If we put
on the robes of the stoic, or wrap ourselves in the
philosophy of the fatalist, the heart beneath will beat
for the land of our birth, in spite of the outward man.
There is no peace, there is. no hope, there is no hap-
piness, in a state of indifference to the welfare and
honor of our country. The most sordid of men, whose
sole delight consists in laying, day by day, one more
piece of gold on his already swollen heaps, has no
more assured rest from anxiety for his country, in
times of real peril, than he whose whole being quiv-
ers beneath the blows which public disasters or dis-
graces inflict upon a refined and sensitive nature. To
love our country ; to labor for its prosperity and re-
pose ; to contend, in civil life, for the measures which
we believe essential to its good ; to yearn for that
long, deep, tranquil flow of public affairs, which we
fondly hope is to reach and bear safely on its bosom
those in whom we are to have an earthly hereafter ;
these are the nobler passions and the higher aims
Avhich distinguish the • civilized from the savage man.
Even if I did not feel such emotions deeply, how could
I bring here at such a time as this the doubts and

misgivings of one fearful for himself? The thickly
crowding memories of the far-off dead, who have
fallen in the bitter contests of this civil war, admon-
ish me of the insignificance of such fears. Who shall
bring a thought of the exertions, the sacrifices or the
responsibilities of public discourse into the presence
of the calamities of his country !

I am here for a far other purpose. I come to plead
for the Constitution of our country. I am here to
show you, from my own earnest convictions, how dan-
gerous it may be to forego all care for the connection
between the political past and the political future. I
am here to state to you, as I have read them on the
page of history, the fundamental conditions on which
alone, as I believe, the people of these States can be
a nation, and preserve their liberties. I am here to
endeavor to rescue the idea of union from heresies as
destructive as the disorganizing and justly reprobated
heresies of secession. I wish to do what I can to
define to rational and intelligent minds the real na-
ture and limits of the national supremacy ; and to
vindicate it from the corroding influence of doctrines
which are leading us away from the political faith
and precepts of a free people.

Do you say that there is no need of such a discus-
sion ■? Reflect for a moment, I pray you, on what has
already crept into the common uses of our political

speech. We hear men talk about the " old " Con-
stitution ; as if that admirable frame of government,
which is not yet older than some who still live under
its sway, and which has bestowed on this nation a
vigor unexampled in history, were already in its de-
crepitude ; or as if it had become suspended from its
functions by general consent, to await at respectful
distance the advent of some new authority, as yet un-
known. We hear men talk of the " old " tJnion ; as
if there were a choice about the terms on which the
Union can subsist, or as if those terms were not to
be taken as having been fixed, on the day on which
Washington and his compatriots signed the Consti-
tution of the United States. You will not say that
this tendency — this apparent willingness to break
away from the past and its obligations, and to throw
ourselves upon a careless tempting of the future —
does not demand your sober consideration. I beg
you also to call before you another symptom of these
unsettled times. With an extravagance partly habit-
ual to us, and partly springing from the intense ex-
ertions of the year which has just passed, we have
encountered the doctrines of secession and disunion
with many theories about the national unity and the
Federal authority, which are not founded in history
or in law. Are you not conscious that there has been
poured forth from hundreds of American pulpits, plat-

forms, and presses, and on the floors of Congress, a
species of what is called argnment, in defence of the
national supremacy, which ill befits the nature of our
republican institutions'? When I hear one of these
courtier-like preachers or writers, for our American
sovereigns, resting the authority of our government on
a doctrine that might have gained him promotion at
the hands of James or Charles Stuart, I cannot help
wishing that he had lived in an age when such teach-
ings, if not actually believed to be sound, were at
all events exceedingly useful to the teachers. My
friends, I cannot bear the thought of vindicating the
supremacy of our national government by anything
but the just title on which it was founded ; and I
will not desert the solid ground of our republican
constitutional liberty for any purpose on earth while
there is a hope of maintaining it.

I know of no just foundation for the title of gov-
ernment in this country, but consent — that consent
which resides in compact, contract, stipulation, con-
cession — the " do et concedo" of public grants. Give
me a solemn cession of political sovereign powers,
evidenced by a public transaction and a public char-
ter, and you have given me a civil contract, to which
I can apply the rules of public law and the obliga-
tions of justice between man and man ; on which I
can separate the legitimate powers of the government

10

from the rights of the people ; on which I can, with
perfect propriety, assert the authority of law in the
halls of criminal jurisprudence, or, if need be, at the
mouth of the cannon. But when you speak of any
other right of one collection of people or States to
govern another collection of people or States ; when
you go beyond a public charter to create a national
unity and a duty of loyalty and submission indepen-
dent of that charter ; when you undertake to found
government on something not embraced^ by a grant —
I understand you to employ a language and ideas
that ought never to be uttered by an American
tongue, and which, if carried out in practice, will
put an end to the principles on which your liberties
are founded.

For these and many other reasons — most appropri-
ate for our consideration this day — let us recur to
certain indisputable facts in our history. I shall
make no apology for insisting on the precedents of
our national history. No nation can safely lay aside
the teachings, the obligations, or the facts of its pre-
vious existence. You cannot make a tabula rasa of
your political condition, and write upon it a purely
original system, with no traditions, no law, no com-
pacts, no beliefs, no limitations, derived from the gen-
erations who have gone before you, without ruinously
failing to improve. Revolutionary France tried such

11

a proceeding; — and property, life, religion, morals^
public order and public tranquillity went down into
a confusion no better than barbarism, out of which
society could be raised again only by the strong hand
of a despot. We are of a race which ought to have
learned by the experience of a thousand years, that
reforms, improvements, progress, must be conducted
with a fixed reference to those antecedent facts which
have already formed the chief condition of the na-
tional existence. Let us attend to some of the well
known truths in our history.

1. The Declaration of Independence was not
accepted by the people of the colonies, and their
Delegates in Congress were not authorized to enter
into a Union, without a reservation to the people of
each colony of its distinct separate right of internal
self-government. To represent the abstract sentiments
of the Declaration as inconsistent with any law or
institution existing in any one of the colonics, is to
contradict the record and history of its adoption.
What, for example, do you make of the following
resolution of the people of Maryland in convention,
adopted on the 28th day of June, 1776, and laid be-
fore the Continental Congress three days before the
Declaration of Independence was signed : " That the
deputies of said Colony or any three or more of
them, be authorized and empowered to concur with

12

the other United Colonies, or a majority of them,
in declaring the United Colonies free and indepen-
dent States ; in forming such further compact and
confederation between them ; in making foreign alli-
ances, and in adopting such other measures as shall
be adjudged necessary for securing the liberties of
America ; and, that said Colony will hold itself
bound by the resolutions of the majority of the
United Colonies, in the premises : 2^1'ovided, the sole

A^'D EXCLUSIVE RIGHT OF REGULATING THE INTERNAL
GOVERNMENT AND POLICE OF THAT CoLONY BE RESERVED
TO THE PEOPLE THEREOF."

This annunciation of the sense and purpose in
which the people of Maryland accepted the Decla-
ration, is just as much a part of the record as the
Declaration itself ; and it clearly controls for them
the meaning and application of every political ax-
iom or principle which the Declaration contains. It
was intended to signify to the country and the
world, that the people of Maryland consented to
separate themselves from the sovereignty of Great
Britain, on the condition, that the right to maintain
within their own limits just such a system of soci-
ety and government as they might see fit to main-
tain, should belong to them, notwithstanding any-
thing said in the Declaration to which they were
asked to give their assent.

13

Several of the other colonies made a similar
express reservation ; and all of them, and all the
people of America, understood that every colony ac-
cepted the Declaration, in fact, in the same sense.
No man in the whole country, from the 4th of
July, 1776, to the adoption of the Articles of Con-
federation, ever supposed that the Eevolutionary
Congress acquired any legal right to interfere with
the domestic concerns of any one of the colonies
which then became States, or any moral authority
to lay down rules for determining what laws, insti-
tutions, or customs, or what condition of its inhab-
itants, should be adopted or continued by the States
in their internal government. From that day to
this, it has ever been a received doctrine of Amer-
ican law, that the Revolutionary Congress exercised,
with the assent of the whole people, certain powers
which were needful for the common defence ; but
that these powers in no way touched or involved
the sovereign right of each State to regulate its
own internal condition.

2. When the Articles of Confederation were
finally ratified, in 1781, there was placed in the
very front of the instrument the solemn declaration
that, "Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom,
and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and
right, which is not by this Confederation expressly

14

dele.^ated to the United States in Congress assem-
bled;" and the powers given to the United States in
Congress related exclusively to those affairs in which
the States had a common concern, and were framed
with a view to the common defence against a for-
eign enemy, in order to secure, by joint exertions,
the independence and sovereignty of each of the
States.

3. When the Constitution of the United States
was finally established, in 1788, the people of each
State, acting through authorized agents, executed, by
a resolution or other public act, a cession of cer-
tain sovereign powers, described in the Constitution,
to the Government which that Constitution pro-
vided to receive and exercise them. These powers
being once absolutely granted by public instruments
duly executed in behalf of the people of each State,
were thenceforth incapable of being resumed ; for I
hold that there is nothing in the nature of political
powers which renders them, when absolutely ceded,
any more capable of being resumed at pleasure by
the grantors, than a right of property is when once
conveyed by an absolute deed. In both cases, those
who receive the grant hold under a contract; and if
that contract, as is the case with the Constitution,
provides for a common arbiter to determine its mean-
ing and operation, there is no resulting right in the

15

parties, from the instrument itself, to determine any
question that arises under it.

At the same time, it is never to be forgotten that
the powers and rights of separate internal govern-
ment ^Yhich were not ceded by the people of the
States, or which they did not by adopting the Con-
stitution agree to restrain, remained in the people
of each State in full sovereignty. It might have
been enough for their safety to have rested upon
this as a familiarly understood and well-defined prin-
ciple of public law, implied in every such grant.
But the people did not see fit to trust to implication
alone. They insisted upon annexing to the Consti-
tution an amendment, which declares that " The
powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the
people."

We thus see that, from the first dawn of our
national existence, through every form which it has
yet assumed, a dual character has constantly attend-
ed our political condition. A nation has existed,
because there has all along existed a central author-
ity having the right to prescribe the rule of action
for the whole people, on certain subjects, occasions,
and relations. In this sense and in no other, to
this extent but no farther, we have been since

16

1776, and are now, a nation. At the beginning, the
limits of this central authority, in respect to which
we are a nation, were defined by general popular
understanding ; but more recently they were fixed in
written terms and public charters, first by the Arti-
cles of Confederation, and ultimately and with a
more enlarged scope and a more efficient machinery,
by the Constitution. The latter instrument made
this central authority a government proper, but with
limited and defined powers, which are supreme
within their own appropriate sphere. In like man-
ner, from the beginning, there has existed another
political body ; — distinct, sovereign within its own
sphere, and independent as to all the powers and
objects of government not ceded or restrained under
the Federal Constitution. This body is the State ; a
political corporation, of which each inhabitant is a
subject, as he is at the same time a subject of that
other political corporation known as the United
States.

All this is familiar to you. But I state it here,
because I wish to remind you that the careful pres-
ervation of this separate political body, the State, —
this sovereign right of self-government as far as it
has been retained by the people of each State, —
has ever been a cardinal rule of action with the
American people, and with all their wisest states-

17

men, Northern and Southern, of every school of
politics. There have been great differences of opin-
ion, and great controversies, respecting the dividing
line which separates, or ought to be held to sepa-
rate, the National from the State powers. But no
American statesman has ever lived, at any former
period, who would have dared to confess a purpose
to crush the State sovereignties out of existence ;
and no man can now confess such a wish, without
arousing a popular jealousy which will not slumber
even in a time of civil war and national commo-
tion.

What is the true secret of this undying popular
jealousy on the subject of the State rights ? What
is it, that even now — when we are sending our
best blood to be poured out in defence of the true
principle of the national supremacy — causes all
men who are not mad with some revolutionary pro-
ject, to shrink from measures that appear to threaten
the integrity of State authority, and to pray that at
least that bitter and dreaded cup may pass from us ?
It is the original, inborn and indestructible belief
that the preservation of the State sovereignty, within
its just and legitimate sphere, is essential to the
preservation of Republican liberty. Beyond a doubt,
it was this belief which led the people from the
first to object, as they sometimes did unreasonably

18

object, to the augmentation of the national powers.
Perhaps thej^ could not always explain — perhaps
they did not always fully understand — all the
grounds of this conviction. It has been, as it
were, an instinct ; and for one, I hope that in-
stinct is as active and vigilant this day, as I am
sure it was eighty years ago.

For I am persuaded that local self-government, to
as great an extent as is consistent with national
safety, is indispensable to the long continued exist-
ence of Republican government on a large scale.
A Republic, in a great nation, demands those sepa-
rate institutions, which imply in different portions of
the nation some rights and powers with which no
other portion of the nation can interfere. You may
give the mere name of a Republic to a great many
modes of national existence ; but unless there are
local privileges, immunities, and rights, that are not
subject to the control of the national will, the gov-
ernment, although resting on a purely democratic
basis, will be a despotism towards all the minorities.
A great nation, too, that attempts republican govern-
ment without such local institutions and rights, must
soon lose even the republican form. Twice within
the memory of some who are yet living, have the
people of France tried the experiment of calling
themselves a Republic ; and France, be it remem-

19

bered, has been, ever since her great Revolution,
essentially a democratic country. But her republics
have never been anything but huge democracies,
acting with overwhelming force sometimes through
a head called a Directory, sometimes through a First
Consul, sometimes through a President, but ending
speedily in an Emperor and a Despotism. It is im-
practicable for a great and powerful democratic na-
tion, whose power is not broken and checked by
local institutions of self-government, to avoid con-
ferring on its head and representative a large part
or the whole of its own unlimited force. If that
head is not clothed with such power, there will be
anarchy. Louis Napoleon, by the present theory of
French law, is the representative of the whole au-
thority of the French nation — so constituted by
universal suffrage ; and if his power did not in fact
correspond to this theory, order could not be pre-
served in France. The most skeptical person may
be convinced of this, who will read the Constitution
of the French Empire, remembering that it is the
work of the Emperor himself.

Turning now to our own country, let us suppose
that the States of this Union, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, were obliterated to-day, and that the
people of this whole country were a consolidated
democracy, " one and indivisible." No laws would

20

then be made, no justice administered, no order
maintained, no institutions upheld, save in the name
and by the authority of the nation. What sort of a
Republic, think you, would that be ? If it started
with the name and semblance, how long would it
preserve the substance of Republican institutions ?
In order to act at all in the discharge of the vast
duties devolving upon it, the government of such a
Republic, extending over a country so enormous,
must more and more be made the depositary of the
irresistible force of the nation ; and the theory that
the will of the government expresses in all cases the
will of the ruling majority, must soon confer upon
it that omnipotent power, beneath which minorities
and individuals can have no rights.

This is no mere speculation. Every reflecting man
in this country knows that he has some civil rights,
which he does not hold at the will and pleasure of
a majority of the people of the United States. He
knows that he holds these rights by a tenure which
cannot lawfully be touched by all the residue of the
nation. This is Republican liberty, as I understand
and value it ; and without this principle in some
form of active and secure operation, I do not be-
lieve that any valuable Republican liberty is possible
in any great Democratic country on the face of
this earth. Certainly, it is not possible for us.

21

It seems to one who looks back upon our his-
tory, and who keeps before him the settled con-
ditions of our liberty, almost impossible to beheve
that in consequence of a direct colHsion between
the rightful supremacy of the nation and a wrong-
ful assertion of State Sovereignty, we are exposed
to all the evils of civil war, and to the danger of
destroying the true principles of our system, in the
effort to maintain them. That this danger is real
and practical, will be conceded now, by every man
who will contemplate the projects that spring up
on all sides, looking to the acquisition of powers
which have never belonged to the Federal Union
by any theory under which it has yet existed.
The main resemblance between these projects is
that none of them will fit the known basis of the
Constitution ; and that as means, therefore, of curing
the disorders of our country, or of making men
obedient to the Constitution, their tendency is merely
mischievous. At the same time, they are none of
them founded on any theory of a new Union, or
of a new form of national existence, which their
authors can explain to us or to themselves. One
man, for instance, wishes the government to assume
the power of emancipating all the slaves of the
South, by some decree, civil or military. But he
cannot possibly explain what the government of the

22

Union is to be, when it has done this. Another
man wants a sweeping confiscation of all the prop-
erty of all the people of the revolted States, guilty
and innocent alike. But he does not tell you what
kind of a sovereign the United States is to be, after
such a seizure shall have been consummated. A
third, in addition to these things, and as if in imi-
tation of the Austrian method of dealing with rebel-
lious Hungary, wishes to declare a sweeping forfeit-
ure of all political rights ; an utter extinguishment
of the corporate State existence, and a reduction of
the people of the revolted States to a condition of
military or some other vassalage. But he not only
does not show how the Constitution enables the
Federal Government to obliterate a State, but he
does not even suggest what the Union is to be,
when this is done, or even whence the requisite
physical force is to be derived. Multitudes of poli-
ticians tell us that slavery is the root of all the
national disasters, and that we must " strike at the
root." But none of them tell us how we are to
pass through these disasters to a safer condition, or
Avhat the condition is to be when we shall have
"struck at the root."

Now it seems to me, endeavoring as I do to
repress all merely vain and useless regrets for what
is passed, and to find some safe principle of action

23

for the present and the future, that there is one
thought on Tvhich the people of the United States
should steadily fix their attention. We have seen
that our National Union has had three distinct
stages. The first was the Union formed by sending
delegates to the Revolutionary Congress, and by a
general submission to the measures adopted by that
body for the common defence. The second was the
closer league of the Confederation, the powers of
which were defined by a written charter. The third
was the institution of a government proper, with
sovereign but enumerated powers, imder the Consti-
tution. Now I infer from what I see of some of
the currents of public and private opinion, that
many persons entertain a vague expectation that the
military operations now necessarily carried on by the
Federal Government will result in the creation of
new civil relations, a new Union and a new Consti-
tution of some kind, they know not what. He
would be a very bold and a very rash man, who
should undertake to predict what new constitution
can follow a civil war in a great country like this.
But looking back to the commencement of our na-
tional existence, we see that there never has been a
change in the form of the Union ; there never has
been a uew acquisition of political power by the
central government, which has been gained by force.

24

Such additions of foreign territory, as we have ob-
tained by arms or treaty, have merely increased the
area of the Union, but they have not augmented the
political powers of the government in the smallest
degree. The inhabitants of those regions have come
into the Union subject to the same powers to which
we, who were original parties to the formation of
the Constitution, have always been subject, and to
no others. The national authority has never gained
the slightest increase of its political powers by force
of arms. In every stage in Avhich its powers have
been augmented, the increase has been gained by
the free, voluntary consent of the people of each
State, without coercion of any kind.

This consideration certainly affords no reason why
the Government of the United States should not vin-
dicate its just authority under the Constitution, over
the whole of its territory, by military power. The
right of the Government of this Union to exercise
the powers embraced in the Constitution rests, I
repeat, upon a voluntary, irrevocable cession of those
powers by the people of each State ; and no impar-
tial pubHcist in the world will deny that the right
to put down all military or other resistance to the
exercise of those powers rests upon a just and per-
fect title. This title is founded on a public grant.

But when you come to the idea of acquiring

other and further powers by the exercise of force,
you come to a very different question. You then
have to consider whether a people whose civil polity
is founded on the title given by consent — who have
never known or admitted any other rule of action
than that expressed in the maxim that " govern-
ments derive their just powers from the consent of
the governed," — can proceed to found any new
political powers on a military conquest over a rebel-
lion, without changing the whole character of their
institutions. For my own part, with the best reflec-
tion I have been able to give to this momentous
subject, I have never been able to see how a major-
ity of the American people can proceed to acquire
by military subjugation, or by military means, or
maxims, any new authority over the people or insti-
tutions of any State or class of States, without falling
back upon the same kind of title, as that by ^^■hich
William of Normandy and his descendants acquired
and held the throne of England. That title was
founded on the sword.

Perhaps there are some who will say, if this is to
be the issue, let it come. I can have no argument
with those who are prepared to accept, or who wish
for, this issue. All that I know or expect in this
world, of what may be called civil happiness, is
staked on the preservation of our repubhcan consti-

2()

tutional freedom. If others are prepared to yield
it ; if others are willing to barter it for the doubly
hazardous experiment of obtaining control over the
destiny of a race not now subject to our sway, or
dependent on our responsibility ; if others are ready
to change the foundation of our Union from free
public charters to new authorities obtained by mil-
itary subjugation — I cannot follow them. I shall
bear that result, if it comes, with such resignation
as may be given to me. But you will pardon me,
fellow-citizens, if, with my humble efforts, I yet
endeavor to sustain those, be they many or few,
Avho faithfully seek to carry us to the end of these
great perils with the whole system of our civil
liberties unimpaired. You will still, I trust, give
every honest man the freedom to struggle to the
last for that inestimable principle, on which the
very authority of your government to demand the
obedience of all its citizens was founded by those
who created it.

The object for which we are urged by some to
put at imminent hazard the foundation principle of
our Federal system, is, emancipation of the slaves of
the South. No one can be less disposed than my-
self to undervalue the capacity of my countrymen
to do a great many things — and to do them suc-
cessfully. One would suppose, however, that a

97

proposition to effect a sweeping change in the con-
dition of four millions of the laboring peasantry of
a great region of country, and to do it in almost
total ignorance of the methods in which that partic-
ular race can be safely dealt with, so as to produce
any good, — would be a proposition upon which
even our self-confidence would be likely to pause.
One would suppose that such an idea might suggest
an inquiry into the limits of human responsibility.
It is not allowed among sound moralists, that there
is any rule which authorizes a statesman to undo an
original wrong, at the imminent hazard of doing
another wrong, as great or greater ; and there is no
rule of moral obligation for a statesman, that is not
applicable to the conduct of a people.

Setting aside, then, for a moment, all idea of
constitutional restraint, let me put it to each one of
you to ask himself how many persons there are in
all the North, on whose judgment you would rely
for a reasonably safe determination as to what ought
to be done with slavery, — having a single view to
the welfare of that race] Of course I do not speak
of disposing of a few hundred individuals, but of
general measures or movements affecting four mil-
lions of your fellow-creatures. It has been my
fortune, in the course of life, to know a few truly
great statesmen in this our Northern latitude, and

28

to know many other persons, for whose general opin-
ions on what concerns the welfare of the human
race I should have profound respect. But I have
never seen the man, born, educated and living away
from contact with slavery as it exists in the South,
whom I could regard as competent to determine
what radical changes ought to be made in the con-
dition of a race, of whom all that we yet know
evinces their present incapacity to become self-
sustaining and self-dependent. In such a case, it
appears to me a very plain moral proposition, that
our Maker has not cast upon us the responsibility
of becoming his agents in the premises. But it
further appears to me that, in this case, he has
surrounded my moral responsibility with other lim-
itations which I cannot transcend. If the order of
civil society in Avhich I am placed imposes on me
an obligation to refrain from acting on the affairs
of others ; if I cannot break that obligation without
destroying the principle of a beneficent government
and overturning the foundations of property ; if I
cannot use the means which I am tempted to em-
ploy without danger of unspeakable wrong ; or if
the utter inefiicacy of those means is apparent to
me and to all men, — what is my duty to Him who
sets the moral bounds of all my actions 1 It is to
use those means, and those only, against which He

29

has raised no such gigantic and insuperable moral
obstacles. That no valuable military allies can be
found among the negroes of the South ; that no de-
scription of government custody or charge of them
can become more than a change of masters ; and
that nothing but weakness to the national cause
results from projects that look to the acquisition of
national power over their condition, — are truths on
which the public mind appears to be rapidly ap-
proaching a settled conviction.

I add one word more upon this topic ; and I do
it for the purpose of saying in the presence of this
community, that any project for arming the blacks
against their masters deserves the indignant rebuke
of every Christian in the land. When the descend-
ants of those whom Chatham protected against
ministerial employment of the Indian scalping-knife,
so, forget the civilization of the age and their own
manhood as to sanction a greater atrocity, we may
hang our heads in shame before the nations of the
earth.

But there is another aspect of this matter, which
it would be entirely wrong to overlook. The great
army which has rallied with such extraordinary
vigor and alacrity to the defence of the Union and
the preservation of the Constitution, — which has
endured so much, and has exhibited such heroic

30

'qualities, — is not a standing army of hired merce-
naries. It is an army of volunteers, of citizen sol-
diers who have left their homes and entered the
service of their country, for a special purpose which
they distinctly understood. Permit me to say that
you are bound to remember this ; — or, rather let
me cast aside the language of exhortation, and as-
sert, in your name, that you do remember it with
pride and exultation. The purpose for which these
men were asked to enter the public service was the
protection of the existing Union and the existing
Constitution from attempts to overthrow or change
them by organized violence ; and that purpose is the
most important element in their relation to the
Government. No other army in the world ever en-
tered the service of any power, with an understand-
ing so distinct, so peculiar, so circumscribed in
respect to the objects for which it was to be
used ; so directly addressed to the moral sense and
intelligent judgment of intelligent men. I cannot
doubt that I speak the sentiments of nine men
out of every ten in this community, when I say
that to change that purpose, and to use that army
for any other end than the defence of the Con-
stitution as it is, and the restoration of the Union
of our forefathers, would be a violation of the
public faith.

31

It is now proposed to enlarge that army by a
further call for volunteers. Let them come fortli,
making no conditions with the Government ; for the
Government has made its own conditions, and has
made them in accordance with the letter and the
spirit of the Constitution. The purposes and ob-
jects of the war, as declared at the beginning, can
never be changed, unless the people shall be so
untrue to themselves as to compel a change ; and
when they do that, they will be themselves respon-
sible for the defeat of their own hopes.

There is yet another topic, on which, as it seems
to me, we ought carefully and soberly to reflect. I
mean the history of opinion concerning the nature
of the Union, and the causes which from time to
time have produced disorganizing doctrines respect-
ing it. But let me ask you here not to misunder-
stand me. I seek no occasion to fasten upon par-
ticular persons one or another measure of responsi-
bility for what has occurred ; and, therefore, in
pursuance of a rule which I have imposed on my-
self in the preparation of this discourse, the name
or designation of no living man, in the North or
the South, will pass my lips this day.

Whoever is well acquainted with the political
history of this country, since the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, must know that there have

32

been developed at various times, certain strange
opinions concerning the nature of the Federal
Union, the foundation of its authority, and the char-
acter of the obligations which we owe to it. In
general, the people of the United States have been
content to rest upon that theory respecting their gov-
ernment which has always prevailed in its official
administration, in whatever hands that administra-
tion has been lodged ; — this theory being that the
central government holds certain direct and sover-
eign, but special, powers over the whole people,
ceded to it by the voluntary grant of the people of
each State. But a sense of injury in certain locali-
ties, springing from wrong supposed to have been
committed or meditated by the ruling majority, or
by those Avho at the time exercised the power of
the majority, has not infrequently led men here as
elsewhere, to mdulge in speculations and acts quite
inconsistent with the only basis on which the gov-
ernment can be said to have any real authority
whatever. To enumerate all these occasions, or to
recite the intemperate conduct that has attended
them in periods of great excitement, is unneces-
sary. But there is one of them, which may serve
as an ample illustration of all that I desire to say
on this special topic.

It is commonly said, — and with much logical

33

truth, — that the doctrines of Nullification lead, by
natural steps, to the doctrines of Secession ; and
the late Mr. Calhoun, who is justly considered as
the patron, if not the author, of the former, is also
popularly regarded as the father of the latter. But
it is important for us, in more aspects than one
to know that Mr. Calhoun did not contemplate or
desire a dissolution of the Union. He adopted a
doctrine respecting it which does indeed lead, when
consistently followed out, to what is called the con-
stitutional right of secession ; but he did not see
this connection, or intend the consequence. There
is reason to believe that if his confidential corre-
spondence during the times of Nullification shall
ever see the light, it will be found that he was a
sincere lover of the Union, and was wholly uncon-
scious that he was sowing, in the minds of those
who were to come after him, seeds that were to
bear a fatal fruit. It was in his power, at one
time, to have arrested the career of the NuUifiers
in South Carolina, for to them his word was law ;
and if he had so done, he would probably have
been placed by his numerous, powerful, and at-
tached friends, out of that State, in nomination at
least for the highest office in the country.

But what was it that led that subtle, acute and
generally logical intellect to embrace a theory

5

34

respecting the Constitution which was entirely at
variance with the facts that attended its establish-
ment 1 The process was very simple, with a mind
of a highly metaphysical and abstract turn. Mr.
Calhoun had persuaded himself, contrary to an
earlier opinion, that a protective tariff was an un-
constitutional exercise of power by the General
Government, oppressive to South Carolina ; and he
cast about for a remedy. He saw no relief against
this fancied wrong, likely to come from a majority
of Congress and the people of the Union ; and rea-
soning from the premises that the Constitution is a
compact between sovereign States, an infraction of
which the parties can redress for themselves when
all other remedy fails, he reached the astounding
conclusion, that the operation of an act of Congress
may be arrested in any State, by a State ordinance,
when that State deems such act an unconstitu-
tional exercise of power. But he always main-
tained that this was a remedy within the Union,
and not an act of revolution, or violence, or seces-
sion.

This memorable example of the mode in which
opinion respecting the nature of our Union is af-
fected, is full of instruction at the present time.
But, let no one misunderstand or misrepresent the
lesson that I di-aw from it ; and, that no one may

35

have an excuse for so doing, let me be as frank
and explicit as my temporary relation to this audi-
ence demands. I do not say that the course and
result of the late Presidential election furnishes the
least justification or excuse for what the South has
done. I have never believed that any circumstances
of a constitutional election, could of themselves
afford a justification to any State, or any number
of States, in withdrawing from the Union. Neither
do I say, or believe, that any condition of opinion
respecting a right to withdraw, can afford the
slightest apology for that conduct on the part of
individuals, in or out of the government, in respect
to which there must always remain in every sound
mind a great residuum of moral condemnation.
Neither do I doubt at all the existence of a long-
cherished purpose on the part of some Southern
political men, to seize, the first pretext for breaking
up the Union of these States.

But, my fellow-citizens, it does appear to me, —
and there is practical importance in the inquiry, in
reference to a future restoration of the Union, —
that we ought soberly to consider, whether any
mere conspiracy of politicians could have found a
willing people, if causes had not long been in opera-
tion, which have promoted the growth of doctrines

36

and feelings about the nature and benefits of the
Union fatal to its present dominion over their
minds and hearts.

What has been going on here in the Korth dur-
ing the last twenty or twenty-five years ] We have
had a faction, or sect, or party, — call it what you
will, — constantly increasing, constantly becoming
more and more an element in our politics, which
has made, not covert and secret, but open and un-
disguised war upon the Constitution, its authority,
its law, and the ministers of its law, because its
founders, for wise and necessary purposes, threw
the shield of its protection over the institutions of
the South. If there is a disorganizing doctrine, or
one diametrically hostile to the supremacy of the
Constitution, which that faction has not held, in-
culcated, and endeavored to introduce into public
action, I know not where in the whole armory of
disunion to look for it. They never cared whether
the Constitution was a compact between indepen-
dent States, or an instrument of sovereign govern-
ment resting on the voluntary grant and stipulation
of the people of each State. Destroy it, they said,
— destroy it ! for, be it one thing or another, it
contains that on which the heavens cry out, and
against which man ought to rebel. And so they

37

went on doing their utmost to undermine all re-
spect for its obligations, and to render of no kind
of importance the foundations on which its au-
thority rests. The more that public men in the
North, from weakness, or ambition, or for the sake
of party success, assimilated their opinions to
the opinions of this faction, the more it became
certain that the true ascendancy and supremacy
of the Constitution could never be regained, with-
out some enormous exertion of popular energy,
following some newly enlightened condition of the
popular understanding. When the country was
brought to the sharp and sudden necessity of vin-
dicating the nature and authority of the Union,
there was throughout the North a general popular
ignorance of its real character, and a wide-spread
infidelity to some of its important obligations.

What has been going on in the South during the
same period ] On this point there is much to be
learned by those who seek the truth. If you will
investigate the facts, you will find that thirty years
ago no such opinion as a right of secession had
any general acceptance in the South. No general
support was given in the South to the conduct of
South Carolina, in the matter of nullification. Very
few Southern statesmen or politicians of eminence,
not belonging to that State, followed Mr. Calhoun

38

and Mr. Hayne ; and when the great debate on
the nature of the Constitution was closed, the
general mind of the South was satisfied with the
result.

How is it now ? The simple truth is, that this
great heresy of secession — understood by Southern
politicians as a right resulting from the nature of
the Union — is a growth of the last twenty-five
years ; and it has become the prevalent political
faith with the most active of the educated men of
the South who have come into public life during
this period. It is my belief, founded on what I
have had occasion to know, that the great body of
Southern opinion respecting the Constitution, its
nature, its obligations, and its historical basis, has
undergone a complete revolution since the year
1835. What Mr. Calhoun never contemplated as
a remedy against supposed unconstitutional legisla-
tion, has become familiar to men's minds as a
remedy against that which was striking deeper than
legislation ; which might never take the form of
Congressional action, but was constantly taking
every form of popular agitation ; which might
never become the tangible and responsible doctrine
of administration, but was yet all the more for-
midable and irritating, because it lay couched in
an irresponsible popular sentiment, fomented by

39

appeals which were designed to deprive constitu-
tional ties and obligations of their binding moral
force.

Are we told that these things do not stand in
any relation of cause and effect 1 Are we so sim-
ple, so uninstructed in what influences the great
movements of the human mind, that we cannot
see how intellect and passion and interest may be
affected by what passes before our eyes 1 Must I
wait until the whole fabric of ' free constitutional
government is pulled down upon my head, and I
am buried beneath its ruins, before I cry out in
its defence"? Must I postpone all judgment respect-
ing the causes of its disintegration, until it has
gone down in the ashes of civil war, and History
has written the epitaph over the noblest common-
wealth that the world has seen? I fear that there
is a too prevalent disposition to surrender ourselves
as passive instruments into the hands of fate, —
too much of abandonment to the current of mere
events, — too great a practical denial of our own
capacity to save our country by a manly assertion
of the moral laws on which its preservation de-
pends. Can it be that we are losing our faith in
that Ruler who has made the safety of nations to
depend on something more than physical and mate-
rial strength, who has given us moral power over

40

our own condition, and has surrounded us with
countless moral weapons for its defence 1

It is marvellous through what a course of in-
struction, through what discipline of suffering and
calamity, the people of this country have had to
pass, in order fully to comprehend the truth that
the nature of their government depends upon sound
deduction from a series of historical facts ; and that
it must, therefore, be defended by consistent popular
action. It is now somewhat more than thirty years
since Daniel Webster, combining in himself more
capacities for such a task than had ever been
given to any other American statesman, demonstra-
ted that our national government can have no secure
operation whatever, unless the obviously true and
simple deduction from the facts of its origin is ac-
cepted as the basis of its authority. You know
what he taught. You know that he proved — if
ever mortal intellect proved a moral proposition —
that in the exercise of its constitutional powers
the national government is supreme, because every
inhabitant of every State has covenanted with every
inhabitant of every other State that it shall be so ;
that even when the national Legislature is supposed
to have overstepped its constitutional limits, no State
interposition, no State Legislation, can afford lawful
remedy or relief; and that all adverse State action.

41

whether called by the name of Nullification or by
any other name, is unlawful resistance. We are
glad enough now to rest upon his great name ;
we march proudly under his imposing banner, to
encounter the hosts of " constitutional secession."
But how was it with us, even before he was laid
in that unpretending tomb, which rises in the scene
that he loved so well, and overlooks the sounding
sea, by the music of whose billows he went to his
earthly rest ? Did we follow in his footsteps ? Did
we requite his unequalled civil services ? Did we
cherish the great doctrine that he taught us, as the
palladium of a government which must perish if
that doctrine loses its pre-eminence in the national
mind"? How long or how well did we preserve the
recollection of his teachings, when our local inter-
ests and feelings were arrayed against the action of
the Federal Power'? I will not open that record.
I would to Heaven that it were blotted out forever.
But I cannot stand here this day and be guilty of
anything so unfaithful to my country, as to admit
that under a government whose authority can live
only when sustained by popular reverence for
its sanctions and popular belief in its foundations,
opinion in the South has not been affected by what
has transpired in the North.

I have endeavored to state, with fairness and

6

42

precision, the principle on which the American
Union was founded, and to show that its preservation
depends upon keeping the national and the State
sovereignties each within the proper limits of its ap-
propriate sphere. I am aware that the opinion has
been formed to a great extent in foreign countries and
in the South, and by some among us, that this prin-
ciple is no longer practicable ; that the Union of free
and slave States in the same nation has become an
exploded experiment ; and that our interests are so
incompatible that a reconstruction, on the old basis
at least, ought not to be attempted. We should
probably all concede that this view of the subject
is correct, if we believed that the incompatibility is
necessary, inherent and inevitable. But there is not
enough to justify the breaking up of such a union,
if the supposed incompatibility is but the result of
causes which we can reach, or if it arises from an
unfaithful compliance with the terms of our associa-
tion. We can make such an association no longer
practicable if we choose to do so. We can prevent it
from becoming impracticable, if we are so resolved.
If the free States, as one section, and the slave States
as another, will not respect their mutual obligations,
then there is an end of the usefulness of all effort.
If we, of the North, will not religiously and honestly
respect the constitutional right of every State to main-

43

tain just such domestic institutions as it pleases to
have, and protect tliat right from every species of
direct and indirect interference, tlien there is an abso-
lute incompatibility. If they, of the South, will not
as honestly and religiously maintain the right of the
Federal Union to regulate those subjects and interests
which are committed to it by the Constitution, then
there is, in like manner, an incompatibility of pre-
cisely the same nature. If the parties, in reference
to the common domains, will admit of no compromise
or concession, but each insists on applying to them
its own policy as a national policy, then the incom-
patibility is as complete from that cause as it is from
the others. The difficulty is not in the principle of
the association, for nothing can be clearer than that
principle ; and when it has been honorably adhered
to, no government ui the world has worked more
successfully. But the difficulty has arisen from dis-
turbing causes that have dislocated the machine ;
and what we have now to ascertain is, whether the
People on both sides will treat those causes as
temporary, and remove them, or will accept them
as inevitable and incurable, and thus make the sep-
aration final and conclusive.

In the gloomy conception of the old Grecian
tragedy, no room was left by the poets for the
moral energies of man, there was no force in

u

human struggles, no defence in human innocence
or virtue. Higher than Jupiter, higher than the
heavens, in infinite distance, in infinite indiff"erence
to the fortunes of men or gods, sate the mysterious
and eternal povs^er of Destiny. Before time was, its
decrees were made ; and when the universe began,
that awful chancery was closed. No sweet interced-
ing saints could enter there, translated from the
earth to plead for mankind. No angels of love and
mercy came from human abodes, to bring tidings of
their state. No mediator, once a sufferer in the flesh,
stood there to atone for human sin. The wail of a
nation in its agony, or the cry that went up from a
breaking human heart, might pierce into the end-
less realms of space, might call on the elements for
sympathy, but no answer and no relief could come.
He who was pre-ordained to suffer, through what-
ever agency, suffered and sank, with no consolation
but the thought that all the deities, celestial and
infernal, were alike subject to the same power.

Are we, too, driven by some relentless force, that
annihilates our own free wills and dethrones Him
who is Supreme 1 Are we cast helpless and drifting,
like leaves that fall upon the rushing stream 1 Must
we give way to blank despair] No, no, no! There
are duties to be done — to be done by us: for what-
ever may be the result of the military struggle now

45

pending, — whatever may be the effect of victories
that have been or shall be won — whatever are to
be our future relations with the people of the South,
the time is coming when we and they, face to face,
and in the eye of an all-seeing God, must deter-
mine how we will live side by side as the children
of one eternal Parent. For that approaching day,
and for the sake of a restoration of that which arms
alone cannot conquer, let me implore you to make
some fit and adequate preparation of instruments
and agents and means and influences. Trust to the
humanizing effects of a new and better Intercourse.
Trust to the laws of Nature, which have poured
through this vast continent the mighty streams that
bind us in the indissoluble ties of Commerce. Trust
in that Charity — the follower and the handmaid of
Commerce — which clothes the naked and feeds
the hungry and forgives the erring. Trust in the
force of Kindred Blood, which leaps to reconcilia-
tion, when the storms of passion are sunk to rest.
Trust in that divine law of Love, which has more
power over the human soul than all the terrors of
the dungeon or the gibbet. Trust in the influence
over your own hearts and the hearts of others, of
that Religion which was sent as the messenger of
Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men. Trust in the
wise, beneficent, impartial and neutral spirit of your

46

Fathers, who gave tranquillity, prosperity and happi-
ness to the whole land. Trust in God : and you may
yet see your national emblem, not as the emblem of
victory, but as the sign of a reunited American peo-
ple, floating in the breath of a merciful Heaven,
and more radiant with the glory of its restored con-
stellation, than with all the triumphs it has won, or
can ever win, over a foreign foe.

ORATION

PELIVEKEn BKFOEE

THE CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON,

FOURTH OF JULY, 1863,

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

BOSTON:
J. E. TARWELL & COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE CITY,

37 CoMGEESS Street.
1863.

CITY OF BOSTON

In Board of Aldermen, July 6, 1863.

Ordered : That the thanks of the City Council be, and
they are hereby presented, to Oliver Wendell Holmes,
M. D., for the highly eloquent and truly loyal Address
deKvered before the Municipal Authorities of Boston, on the
occasion of the celebration of the Eighty-seventh Anniversary
of the Declaration of American Independence, and that he
be requested to furnish a copy for publication.

Sent dovt^n for concurrence.

THOMAS C. AMOEY, Jr., Chairman.

In Common Council, July 9, 1863.
Concurred.

GEOKGE S. HALE, President.

Approved July 10, 1863.

F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Mayor.

ORATION.

Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the Common Council,
Fellow-Citizens and Friends :

It is our first impulse, upon this returning day of
our Nation's birth, to recall whatever is happiest and
noblest in our past history, and to join our voices in
celebrating the statesmen and the heroes, the men of
thought and the men of action, to whom that history
owes its existence. In other years this pleasing of-
fice may have been aU that was required of the holi-
day speaker. But to-day, when the very life of the
nation is threatened, when clouds are thick about us,
and men's hearts are throbbing with passion, or fail-
ing with fear, it is the living question of the hour,
and not the dead story of the past, which forces
itself into all minds, and will find unrebuked debate
in all assemblies.

In periods of disturbance like the present, many
persons who sincerely love their country and mean
to do their duty to her, disappoint the hopes and ex-
pectations of those who are actively working in her
cause. They seem to have lost whatever moral force
they may have once possessed, and to go drifting

about from one profitless discontent to another, at a
time when every citizen is called upon for cheerful,
ready service. It is because their minds are bevpil-
dered, and they are no longer truly themselves. Show
them the path of duty, inspire them with hope for
the future, lead them upwards from the turbid stream
of events to the bright translucent springs of eternal
principles, strengthen their trust in humanity, and
their faith in God, and you may yet restore them to
their manhood and their country.

At all times, and especially on this anniversary of
glorious recollections and kindly enthusiasms, we
should try to judge the weak and wavering souls of
our brothers faMy and generously. The conditions
in which our vast community of peace-loving citizens
find themselves, are new and unprovided for. Our
quiet burghers and farmers are in the position of
river-boats blown from their moorings out upon a vast
ocean, where such a typhoon is raging as no mariner
who sails its waters ever before looked upon. If
their beliefs change with the veering of the blast,
if their trust in their fellow-men, and in the course
of Divine Providence seems weU-nigh shipwrecked, we
must remember that they were taken unawares, and
without the preparation which could fit them to
struggle with these tempestuous elements. In times
like these the faith is the man ; and they to whom

it is given in larger measure, owe a special duty to
those who for want of it are faint at heart, uncertain
in speech, feeble in effort, and purposeless in aim.

Assuming without argument a few simple propo-
sitions, that self-government is the natural condition
of an adult society, as distinguished from the imma-
ture state, in which the temporary arrangements of
monarchy and oligarchy are tolerated as conveniences;
that the end of all social compacts is or ought to be
to give every child born into the world the fairest
chance to make the most and the best of itself that
laws can give it; that Liberty, the one of the two
claimants who swears that her babe shall not be split
in halves and divided between them, is the true
mother of this blessed Union; that the contest in
which we are engaged is one of principles over-
laid by circumstances ; that the longer we fight, and
the more we study the movements of events and
ideas, the more clearly we find the moral nature of
the cause at issue emerging in the field and in the
study ; that all honest persons with average natural
sensibility, with respectable understanding, educated
in the school of northern teaching, will have event-
ually to range themselves in the armed or unarmed
host which fights or pleads for freedom, as against
every form of tyranny; if not in the front rank now,
then in the rear rank by-and-by ; assuming these

propositions, as many, perhaps most of us, are ready
to do, and believing that the more they are debated
before the public, the more they will gain converts,
we owe it to the timid and the doubting to keep
the great questions of the time in unceasmg and
untiring agitation. They must be discussed, in all
ways consistent with the public welfare, by different
classes of thinkers ; by priests and laymen ; by states-
men and simple voters ; by moralists and lawyers ;
by men of science and uneducated hand-laborers ; by
men of facts and figures, and by men of theories
and aspirations ; in the abstract and in the concrete ;
discussed and rediscussed every month, every week,
every day, and almost every hour, as the telegraph
tells us of some new upheaval or subsidence of the
rocky base of our political order.

Such discussions may not be necessary to strength-
en the convictions of the great body of loyal citizens.
They may do nothing towards changing the views of
those, if such there be, as some profess to believe,
who follow politics as a trade. They may have no
hold upon that class of persons who are defective in
moral sensibility, just as other persons are wanting
in an ear for music. But for the honest, vacillating
minds, the tender consciences supported by the trem-
ulous knees of an infirm intelligence, the timid com-
promisers who are always trying to curve the straight

lines and round the sharp angles of eternal law, the
continual debate of these Jiving questions is the one
offered means of grace and hope of earthly redemp-
tion. And thus a true, unhesitating patriot may be
wUltiig to listen with patience to arguments which
he does not need, to appeals which have no special
significance for him, in the hope that some less clear
in mind or less courageous in temper may profit by
them.

As we look at the condition in which we find our-
selves on this fourth day of July, 1863, at the begin-
ning of the Eighty-eighth Year of American independ-
ence, we may well ask ourselves what right we have
to indulge in public rejoicings. If the war in which
we are engaged is an accidental one, which might have
been avoided but for our fault ; if it is for any ambi-
tious or unworthy purpose on our part ; if it is
hopeless, and we are madly persisting in it; if it is
our duty and in our power to make a safe and
honorable peace, and we refuse to do it; if our free
institutions are in danger of becoming subverted, and
giving place to an irresponsible tyranny ; if we are
moving in the narrow circles which are to engulf us
in national ruin ; then we had better sing a dirge
and leave this idle assemblage,' and hush the noisy
cannon which are reverberating through the air, and

2

10

tear down the scaffolds which are soon to blaze
with fiery symbols ; for it is mourning and not joy
that should cover the land; there should be silence,
and not the echo of noisy gladness in our streets ;
and the emblems with which we tell our nation's
story and prefigure its future, should be traced not
in fire but in ashes.

If, on the other hand, this war is no accident,
but an inevitable result of long-incubating causes;
inevitable as the cataclysms that swept away the
monstrous births of primeval nature ; if it is for no
mean, unworthy end, but for national life, for lib-
erty everywhere, for humanity, for the kingdom of
God on earth ; if it is not hopeless, but only grow-
ing to such dimensions that the world shall remem-
ber the final triumph of right throughout all time ;
if there is no safe and honorable peace for us but
a peace proclaimed from the capital of every revolt-
ed province in the name of the sacred, inviolable
Union ; if the fear of tyranny is a phantasm con-
jured up by the imagination of the weak acted on
by the craft of the cunning ; if so far from circling
inward to the gulf of our perdition, the movement
of past years is reversed, and every revolution car-
ries us farther and farther from the centre of the
vortex, until, by God's blessing, we shall soon find
ourselves freed from the outermost coil of the

11

accursed spiral ; if all these things are true ; if we
may hope to make them seem true, or even prob-
able, to the doubting soul, in an hour's discourse,
then we may join without madness in the day's ex-
ultant festivities ; the bells may ring, the cannon
may roar, the incense of our harmless saltpetre fill
the air, and the children who are to inherit the fruit
of these toiling, agonizing years, go about unblamed,
making day and night vocal with their jubilant
patriotism.

The struggle in which we are engaged was inev-
itable ; it might have come a little sooner, or a little
later, but it must have come. The disease of the
nation was organic and not functional, and the rough
chirurgery of war was its only remedy.

In opposition to this view, there are many languid
thinkers who lapse into a forlorn belief that if this
or that man had never lived, or if this or that other
man had not ceased to live, the country might have
gone on in peace and prosperity until its felicity
merged in the glories of the millennium. If Mr.
Calhoun had never proclaimeid his heresies ; if Mr.
Garrison had never published his paper ; if Mr.
Phillips, the Cassandra in masculine shape of our
long prosperous Ilium, had never uttered his melodi-
ous prophecies ; if the sUver tones of Mr. C!lay had

12

still sounded in the senate chamber to smooth the
billows of contention; if the Olympian brow of
Daniel Webster had been lifted from the dust to fix
its awful frown on the darkening scowl of rebellion,
we might have been spared this dread season of
convulsion. All this is but simple Martha's faith,
without the reason she could have given : " If Thou
hadst been here, my brother had not died."

They little know the tidal movements of national
thought and feeling, who believe that they depend
for existence on a few swimmers who ride their
waves. It is not Leviathan that leads the ocean
from continent to continent, but the ocean which
bears his mighty bulk as it wafts its own bubbles.
If this is true of all the narrower manifestations of
human progress, how much more must it be true of
those broad movements in the intellectual and spir-
itual domain which interest all mankind] But in
the more limited ranges referred to, no fact is more
familiar than that there is a simultaneous impulse
acting on many individual minds at once, so that
genius comes in clusters, and shines rarely as a
single star. You may trace a common motive and
force in the pyramid builders of the earliest record-
ed antiquity, m the evolution of Greek architecture,
and in the sudden springing up of those wondrous
cathedrals of the twelfth and the following centuries,

13

growing out of tlie soil with stem and bud and blos-
som, like flowers of stone whose seeds might well
have been the flaming aerolites cast over the battle-
ments of heaven. You may see the same law show-
ing itself in the brief periods of glory which make
the names of Pericles and Augustus illustrious with
reflected splendors ; in the painters, the sculptors,
the scholars of "Leo's golden days;" in the authors
of the Elizabethan time ; in the j)oets of the first
part of this century following that dreary period,
suffering alike from the sUence of Cowper and the
song of Hayley. You may accept the fact as natural,
that Zwingli and Luther, without knowing each
other, preached the same reformed gospel ; that
Newton, and Hooke, and Halley, and Wren, arrived
independently of each other at the great law of
the diminution of gravity with the square of the
distance ; that Leverrier and Adams felt their hands
meeting, as it were, as they stretched them into
the outer darkness beyond the orbit of Uranus in
search of the dim, unseen planet; that Fulton and
Bell, that Wheatstone and Morse, that Daguerre
and Niepce, were moving almost simultaneously in
parallel paths to the same end. You see why
Patrick Henxy, ia Richmond, and Samuel Adams,
in Boston, were startling the crown officials with
the same accents of liberty, and why the Meek-

14

lenburg Resolutions had the very ring of the pro-
test of the Province of Massachusetts. This law
of simultaneous intellectual movement, recognized
by all thinkers ; expatiated upon by Lord Macau-
lay and by Mr. Herbert Spencer among recent
writers ; is eminently applicable to that change of
thought and feeling, which necessarily led to the
present conflict.

The antagonism of the two sections of the Union
was not the work of this or that enthusiast or fanatic.
It was the consequence of a movement in mass of
two different forms of civilization in different direc-
tions, and the men to whom it was attributed were
only those who represented it most completely, or
who talked longest and loudest about it. Long be-
fore the accents of those famous statesmen referred
to ever resounded in the halls of the Capital ; long
before the " Liberator " opened its batteries, the con-
troversy now working itself out by trial of battle,
was foreseen and predicted. Washington warned his
countrymen of the danger of sectional divisions, well
knowing the line of cleavage that ran through the
seemingly solid fabric. Jefferson foreshadowed the
judgment to fall upon the land for its sin against
a just God. Andrew Jackson announced a quarter
of a century beforehand that the next pretext of
revolution would be slavery. De Tocqueville recog-

15

nized with that penetrating insight which analyzed
our institutions and conditions so keenly, that the
Union was to be endangered h-^ slavery, not through
its interests, but through the, change of character it
was bringing about in the people of the two sec-
tions ; the same fatal change which George Mason,
more than half a century before, had declared to be
the most pernicious effect of the system, adding the
solemn warning now fearfully justifying itself in the
sight of his descendants, that " by an inevitable chain
of causes and effects, Providence punishes national
sins by national calamities." The Virginian romancer
pictured the far-off scenes of the conflict which he
saw approaching, as the prophets of Israel painted
the coming woes of Jerusalem ; and the strong icon-
oclast of Boston announced the very year when the
curtain should rise on the yet unopened drama.

The wise men of the past, and the shrewd men
of our own time who warned us of the calamities in
store for our nation, never doubted what was the
cause which was to produce first alienation and finally
rupture. The descendants of the men " daily exer-
cised in tyranny," the " petty tyrants," as their own
leadiag statesmen called them long ago, came at
length to love the institution which their fathers had
condemned while they tolerated. It is the fearful
reaUzation of that vision of the poet where the lost

16

angels snuff up with eager nostrils the sulphurous
emanations of the bottomless abyss, — so have their
natures become changed by long breathing the atmos-
phere of the realm of darkness.

At last, in the fulness of time, the fruits of sin
ripened in a sudden harvest of crime. Violence
stalked into the senate chamber, theft and perjury
wound their way into the cabinet, and, finally, openly
organized conspiracy, with force and arms, made
burglarious entrance uato a chief stronghold of the
Union. That the principle which underlay these acts
of fraud and violence should be irrevocably recorded
with every needed sanction, it pleased God to select
a chief ruler of the false government to be its Mes-
siah to the listening world. As vidth Pharaoh, the
Lord hardened his heart, while He opened his
mouth as of old He opened that of the unwise ani-
mal ridden by cursing Balaam. Then spake Mr.
"Vice-President" Stephens those memorable words
which fi:xed forever the theory of the new social
order. He first lifted a degraded barbarism to the
dignity of a philosophic system. He first proclaimed
the gospel of eternal tyranny as the new revelation
which Providence had reserved for the western Pal-
estine. Hear, O heavens ! and give ear, O earth !
The comer-stone of the new-born dispensation is the
recognized inequality of races ; not that the strong

17

may protect the weak, as men protect women and
children, but that the strong may claim the authority
of Nature and of God to buy, to sell, to scourge, to
hunt, to cheat out of the reward of his labor, to
keep in perpetual ignorance, to blast with hereditary
curses throughout all time the bronzed foundling of
the New World, upon whose darkness has dawned
the star of the occidental Bethlehem !

After two years of war have consolidated the opin-
ion of the Slave States, we read in the " Eichmond
Examiner " : " The establishment of the Confederacy
is verily a distinct reaction against the whole course
of the mistaken civilization of the age. For ' Liber-
ty, Equality, Fraternity,' we have deliberately substi-
tuted Slavery, Subordination, and Government."

A simple diagram, within the reach of all, shows
how idle it is to look for any other cause than
slavery as having any material agency in dividing
the country. Match the two broken pieces of the
Union, and you wUl find the fissure that separates
them zigzagging itself half across the continent like an
isothermal line, shooting its splintery projections, and
opening its re-entering angles, not merely according to
the limitations of particular States, but as a county
or other limited section of ground belongs to free-
dom or to slavery. Add to this the official statement
made in 1862, that "there is not one regiment or

18

battalion or even company of men, which was organ-
ized in or derived from the Free States or Territories,
anywhere, against the Union ; " throw in gratuitously
Mr. Stephens's explicit declaration in the speech re-
ferred to, and we will consider the evidence closed for
the present on this count of the indictment.

In the face of these predictions, these declarations,
this Ime of fracture, this precise statement, testimony
from so many sources, extending through several
generations, as to the necessary effect of slavery a
priori, and its actual influence as shown by the facts,
few will suppose that anything we could have done
would have stayed its course or prevented it from
working out its legitimate effects on the white sub-
jects of its corrupting dominion. Northern acquies-
cence or even sympathy may have sometimes helped
to make it sit more easily on the consciences of its
supporters. Many profess to think that Northern
fanaticism, as they call it, acted like a mordant in
fixing the black dye of slavery in regions which
would but for that have washed themselves free of
its stain in tears of penitence. It is a delusion and
a snare to trust in any such false and flimsy reasons
where there is enough and more than enough in the
institution itself to account for its growth. Slavery
gratifies at once the love of power, the love of
money, and the love of ease ; it finds a victim for

19

anger who cannot smite back his oppressor, and it
offers to all, without measure, the seductive priv-
ileges which the Mormon gospel reserves for the
true believers on earth, and the Bible of Mahomet
only dares promise to the saints in heaven.

Still it is common, common even to vulgarism, to
hear the remark that the same gallows-tree ought to
bear as its fruit the arch-traitor and the leading
champion of aggressive liberty. The mob of Jerusa-
lem was not satisfied with its two crucified thieves ;
it must have a cross also for the reforming Galilean,
who interfered so rudely with its conservative tradi-
tions ! It is asserted that the fault was quite as
much on our side as on the other ; that our agita-
tors and abolishers kindled the flame for which the
combustibles were all ready on the other side of the
border. If these men could have been silenced, our
brothers had not died.

Who are the persons that use this argument 1
They are the very ones who are at the present
moment most zealous in maintaining the right of
free discussion. At a time when every power the
nation can summon is needed to ward off" the blows
aimed at its life, and turn their force upon its foes,
— when a false traitor at home may lose us a battle
by a word, and a lying newspaper may demoralize
an army by its daily or weekly stillicidium of poison.

20

they insist Avith loud acclaim upon the liberty of
speech and of the press ; liberty, nay license, to
deal with government, with leaders, with every
measure, however urgent, in any terms they choose,
to traduce the officer before his own soldiers, and
assail the only men who have any claim at all to
rule over the country, as the very ones who are
least worthy to be obeyed. If these opposition
members of society are to have their way now, they
cannot find faidt with those persons who spoke their
minds freely in the past on that great question
which, as we have agreed, underlies all our present
dissensions.

It is easy to understand the bitterness which is
often shoAvn towards reformers. They are never
general favorites. They are apt to interfere with
vested rights and time-hallowed interests. They
often wear an unlovely, forbidding aspect. Their
office corresponds to that of Nature's sanitary com-
mission for the removal of material nuisances. It is
not the butterfly, but the beetle, which she employs
for this duty. It is not the bird of paradise and the
nightingale, but the fowl of dark plumage and unme-
lodious voice, to which is entrusted the sacred duty
of eliminating the substances that infect the air.
And the force of obvious analogy teaches us not to
expect all the qualities which please the general

21

taste, in those whose instincts lead them to attack
the moral nuisances which poison the atmosphere
of society. But whether they please us in all their
aspects or not, is not the question. Like them or
not, they must and will perform their office, and we
cannot stop them. They may be unwise, violent,
abusive, extravagant, impracticable, but they are
alive, at any rate, and it is their business to remove
abuses as soon as they are dead, and often to help
them to die. To quarrel with them because they are
beetles and not butterflies, is natural, but far from
profitable. They grow none the worse for being
trodden upon, like those tough weeds that love to
nestle between the stones of court-yard pavements.
If you strike at one of their heads with the bludgeon
of the law, or of violence, it flies open like the
seed-capsule of a snap-weed, and fills the whole re-
gion with seminal thoughts which will spring up in
a crop just like the original martyr. They chased
one of these enthusiasts who attacked slavery, from
St. Louis, and shot him at Alton in 1837 ; and on
the 23d of June just passed, the Governor of Mis-
souri, Chairman of the Committee on Emancipation,
introduced to the Convention an Ordinance for the
final extinction of slavery! They hunted another
through the streets of a great Northern city in
1835, and within a few weeks a regiment of col-

22

ored soldiers, many of them bearing the marks of
the slave-driver's vs^hip on their backs, marched out
before a vast multitude tremulous with newly-stirred
sympathies, through the streets of the same city, to
fight our battles in the name of God and Liberty !

The same persons who abuse the reformers, and
lay all our troubles at theh door, are apt to be
severe also on what they contemptuously emphasize
as " sentiments " considered as motives of action. It
is charitable to believe that they do not seriously
contemplate or truly understand the meaning of the
words they use, but rather play with them, as cer-
tain so-called " learned " quadrupeds play with the
printed characters set before them. In all questions
involving duty, we act from sentiments. Religion
springs from them, the family order rests upon
them, and in every community each act involving a
relation between any two of its members implies the
recognition or the denial of a sentiment. It is true
that men often forget them or act against their bid-
ding in the keen competition of business and politics.
But God has not left the hard intellect of man to
work out its devices Avithout the constant jDresence of
beings with gentler and purer instmcts. The breast
of woman is the ever-rocking cradle of the pure and
holy sentiments which will sooner or later steal their
way into the mind of her sterner companion ; which

will by-and-by emerge in the thoughts of the world's
teachers, and at last thunder forth in the edicts of
its lawgivers and masters. Woman herself borrows
half her tenderness from the sweet influences of
maternity ; and childhood, that weeps at the story of
suffering, that shudders at the picture of wrong,
brings down its inspiration " from God, who is our
home." To quarrel, then, with the class of minds
that instinctively attack abuses, is not only profitless
but senseless ; to sneer at the sentiments which are
the springs of all just and virtuous actions, is merely
a display of unthinking levity, or of want of the
natural sensibilities.

With the hereditary character of the Southern
people moving in one direction, and the awakened
conscience of the North stirring in the other, the
open conflict of opinion was inevitable, and equally
inevitable its appearance in the field of national
politics. For what is meant by self-government, is
that a man shall make his convictions of what is
right and expedient regulate the community so far as
his fractional share of the government extends. If
one has come to the conclusion, be* it right or wrong,
that any particular institution or statute is a violation
of the sovereign law of God, it is to be expected
that he wUl choose to be represented by those who
share his belief, and who will in their wider sphere

24

do all they legitimately can to get rid of the wrong
in which they find themselves and their constituents
involved. To prevent opinion from organizing itself
under political forms may be very desirable, but it is
not according to the theory or practice of self-gov-
ernment. And if at last organized opinions become
arrayed in hostile shape against each other, we shall
find that a just war is only the last inevitable link
in a chain of closely-connected impulses of which
the original source is in Him who gave to tender
and humble and uncorrupted souls the sense of right
and wrong, which, after passing through various
forms, has found its final expression in the use of
material force. Behind the bayonet is the lawgiver's
statute, behind the statute the thinker's argument,
behind the argument is the tender conscientiousness
of woman, — woman, the wife, the mother, — who
looks upon the face of God himself reflected in the
unsullied soul of infancy. " Out of the mouths of
babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength,
because of thine enemies."

The simplest course for the malcontent is to find
fault with the order of Nature and the Being who
established it. Unless the law of moral progress
were changed, or the Governor of the Universe
were dethroned, it would be impossible to prevent
a great uprising of the human conscience against a

25

system, the legislation relating to which, m the
words of so calm an observer as De Tocqueville,
the Montesquieu of our laws, presents " such unpar-
alleled atrocities as to show that the laws of hu-
manity have been totally perverted." Until the
infinite selfishness of the powers that hate and fear
the principles of free government swallowed up
their convenient virtues, that system was hissed at
by aU the decent members of the old-world civiliza-
tion. While in one section of our land the attempt
has been going on to lift it out of the category of
tolerated wrongs into the sphere of the world's
beneficent agencies, it was to be expected that the
protest of Northern manhood and womanhood would
grow louder and stronger until the conflict of prin-
ciples led to the conflict of forces. The moral
uprising of the North came with the logical pre-
cision of destiny ; the rage of the " petty tyrants "
was inevitable ; the plot to erect a slave empire
followed with fated certainty ; and the only question
left for us of the North, was whether we should
suff'er the cause of the Nation to go by default, or
maintain its existence by the argument of cannon
and musket, of bayonet and sabre.

The war in which we are engaged is for no meanly
ambitious or unworthy purpose. It was primarily,

26

and is to this moment, for the preservation of our
national existence. The first direct movement to-
wards it was a civil request on the part of certain
Southern persons, that the Nation would commit
suicide, without making any unnecessary trouble
about it. It was answered with sentiments of the
highest consideration, that there were constitutional
and other objections to the Nation's laying violent
hands upon itself. It was then requested, in a
somewhat peremptory tone, that the Nation would
be so obliging as to abstain from food until the
natural consequences of that proceeding should man-
ifest themselves. All this was done as between a
single State and an isolated fortress ; but it was not
South Carolina and Fort Sumter that were talking;
it was a vast conspiracy uttering its menace to a
mighty nation ; the whole menagerie of treason was
pacing its cages, ready to spring as soon as the
doors were opened ; and all that the tigers of rebel-
lion wanted to kindle their wild natures to phrensy,
was the sight of flowing blood.

As if to show how coldly and calmly all this
had been calculated beforehand by the conspirators,
to make sure that no absence of malice afore-
thought should degrade the grand malignity of set-
tled purpose into the trivial effervescence of tran-
sient passion, the torch which was literally to launch

27

the first missile, figuratively, to " fire the southern
heart " and light the flame of civil war, was given
into the trembling hand of an old white-headed
man, the wretched incendiary whom history will
handcuff in eternal infamy with the temple-burner
of ancient Ephesus. The first gun that spat its
iron insult at Fort Sumter, smote every loyal Ameri-
can full in the face. As when the foul witch
used to torture her miniature image, the person it
represented suffered all that she inflicted on his
waxen counterpart, so every buffet that fell on the
smoking fortress was felt by the sovereign nation of
which that was the representative. Robbery could
go no farther, for every loyal man of the North
was despoiled in that single act as much as if a
footpad had laid hands upon him to take from him
his father's staff and his mothe/s Bible. Insult
could go no farther, for over those battered walls
waved the precious symbol of all we most value in
the past and most hope for in the future, — the ban-
ner under which we became a nation, and which,
next to the cross of the Eedeemer, is the dearest
object of love and honor to all who toil or march
or sail beneath its waving folds of glory.

Let us pause for a moment to consider what
might have been the course of events if under the
influence of fear, or of what some would name

28

humanity, or of conscientious scruples to enter upon
what a few please themselves and their rebel friends
by calling a " wicked war ; " if under any or all
these influences we had taken the insult and the
violence of South Carolina without accepting it as
the first blow of a mortal combat, in which we must
either die or give the last and finishing stroke.

By the same title Avhich South Carolina asserted
to Fort Sumter, Florida would have challenged as
her own the Gibraltar of the Gulf, and Virginia the
Ehrenbreitstein of the Chesapeake. Half our navy
would have anchored under the guns of these sud-
denly alienated fortresses, with the flag of the rebel-
lion flying at their peaks. " Old Ironsides " herself
would have perhaps sailed out of Annapolis harbor
to have a wooden Jefferson Davis shaped for her
figure-head at Norfolk, — for Andrew Jackson was
a hater of secession, and his was no fitting effigy
for the battle-ship of the red-handed conspiracy.
With all the great fortresses, with half the ships and
warlike material, in addition to all that was already
stolen, in the traitors' hands, what chance would the
loyal men in the Border States have . stood against
the rush of the desperate fanatics of the now tri-
umphant faction 1 Where would Maryland, Kentucky,
Missouri, Tennessee, — saved, or looking to be saved,
even as it is, as by fire, — have been in the day of

29

trial ] Into whose hands would the Capital, the
archives, the glory, the name, the very life of the
Nation as a nation, have faUen, endangered as all
of them were, in spite of the volcanic outburst of
the startled North which answered the roar of the
first gun at Sumter's Worse than all, are we per-
mitted to doubt that in the very bosom of the North
itself, there was a serpent, coiled but not sleeping,
which only listened for the first word that made it
safe to strike, to bury its fangs in the heart of Free-
dom, and blend its golden scales in close embrace
with the deadly reptile of the cotton-fields. Who
would not wish that he were wrong in such a sus-
picion ■? yet who can forget the mysterious warnings
that the allies of the rebels were to be found far
north of the fatal boundary line ; and that it was in
their own streets, against their own brothers, that
the champions of liberty were to defend her sacred
heritage ]

Not to have fought, then, after the supreme in-
dignity and outrage we had sufi"ered, would have
been to provoke every further wrong, and to furnish
the means for its commission. It would have been to
placard ourselves on the walls of the shattered fort,
as the spiritless race the proud labor-thieves called us.
It would have been to die as a nation of freemen,
and to have given all we had left of our rights into

30

the hands of alien tyrants in league with home-bred
traitors.

Not to have fought would have been to be false
to liberty everywhere, and to humanity. You have
only to see who are our friends and who are our
enemies in this struggle, to decide for what princi-
ples we are combating. We know too well that the
British aristocracy is not with us. We know what
the West End of London wishes may be the result
of this controversy. The two halves of this Union
are the two blades of the shears, threatening as
those of Atropos herself, which will sooner or later
cut into shreds the old charters of tyranny. How
they would exult if they could but break the rivet
that makes of the two blades one resistless
weapon ! The man who of all living Americans
had the best opportunity of knowing how the fact
stood, wrote these words in March, 1862 : " That
Great Britain did, in the most terrible moment of
our domestic trial in struggling with a monstrous
social evil she had earnestly professed to abhor,
coldly and at once assume our inability to master
it, and then become the only foreign nation steadily
contributing in every indirect way possible to verify
its pre-judgment, will probably be the verdict made
up against her by posterity, on a calm comparison
of the evidence."

;n

So speaks the wise, tranquil statesman who repre-
sents the nation at the Court of St. James, in the
midst of embarrassments perhaps not less than those
which vexed his illustrious grandfather, when he
occupied the same position as the ' Envoy of the
hated, new-born Republic.

" It cannot be denied," — says another observer,
placed on one of our national watch-towers in a for-
eign capital, — " it cannot be denied that the ten-
dency of European public opinion as delivered from
high places, is more and more unfriendly to our
cause;" — "but the people," he adds, "everywhere
sympathize with us, for they know that our cause is
that of free institutions, — that our struggle is that
of the people against an oligarchy." These are the
words of the Minister to Austria, whose generous
sympathies with popular liberty no homage paid to
his genius by the class whose admiring welcome is
most seductive to scholars has ever spoiled ; our fel-
low-citizen, the historian of a great Eepublic which
infused a portion of its life into our own, — John
Lothrop Motley.

It is a bitter commentary on the effects of Euro-
pean, and especially of British institutions, that such
men should have to speak in such terms of the man-
ner in which our struggle has been regarded. We
had. no doubt, very generally reckoned on the sympa-

32

thy of England, at least, in a strife which, whatever pre-
texts were alleged as its cause, arrayed upon one side
the supporters of an institution she was supposed to
hate in earnest, and on the other its assailants. We
had forgotten what her own poet, one of the truest
and purest of her children, had said of his country-
men, in words which might well have been spoken
by the British Premier to the American Ambassador
asking for some evidence of kind feeling on the part
of his Government :

"Alas! expect it not. We found no bait
To tempi? us in thy country. Doing good,
Disinterested good, is not our trade."

We know full well by this time what truth there
is in these honest lines. We have found out, too,
who our European enemies are, and why they are our
enemies. Three bending statues bear up that gilded
seat, which, in spite of the time-haUowed usurpations
and consecrated wrongs so long associated with its
history, is still venerated as the throne. One of these
supports is the pensioned church ; the second is the
purchased army ; the third is the long-suffering peo-
ple. Whenever the third caryatid comes to life and
walks from beneath its burden, the capitals of Europe
will be filled with the broken furniture of palaces.
No wonder that our ministers find the privileged

33

orders willing to see the ominous republic split into
two antagonistic forces, each paralyzing the other,
and standing in their mighty impotence a spectacle
to courts and kings ; to be pointed at as helots who
drank themselves blind and giddy out of that broken
chalice which held the poisonous draft of liberty !

We know our enemies, and they are the enemies
of popular rights. We know our friends, and they
are the foremost champions of political and social
progress. The eloquent voice and the busy pen of
John Bright have both been ours, heartily, nobly,
from the first ; the man of the people has been true
to the cause of the people. That deep and generous
thinker, who, more than any of her philosophical
writers, represents the higher thought of England,
John Stuart Mill, has spoken for us in tones to which
none but her sordid hucksters and her selfish land-
graspers can refuse to listen. Count Gasparin and
Laboulaye have sent us back the echo from liberal
France ; France, the country of ideas, whose earlier
inspirations embodied themselves for us in the person
of the youthful La Fayette. Italy, — -would you know
on which side the rights of the people and the hopes
of the future are to be found in this momentous con-
flict, what surer test, what ampler demonstration can
you ask than the eager sympathy of the Italian
patriot whose name is the hope of the toiling many,

Si

and the dread of their oppressors wherever it is
spoken ; the heroic Garibaldi ?

But even when it is granted that the Avar was in-
evitable ; when it is granted that it is for no base end,
but first for the life of the nation, and more and
more, as the quarrel deepens, for the welfare of man-
kind, for knowledge as against enforced ignorance,
for justice as against oppression, for that kingdom of
God on earth which neither the unrighteous man
nor the extortioner can hope to inherit, it may still
be that the strife is hopeless, and must therefore be
abandoned. Is it too much to say that whether the
war is hopeless or not for the North, depends chiefly
on the answer to the question whether the North
has virtue and manhood enough to persevere in the
contest so long as its resoiu-ces hold out 1 But how
much vu'tue and manhood it has can never be told
until they are tried, and those who are first to
doubt the prevailing existence of these qualities, are
not commonly themselves patterns of either. We
have a right to trust that this people is virtuous and
brave enough not to give up a just and necessary
contest before its end is attained, or shown to be un-
attainable for want of material agencies. What was
the end to be attained by accepting the gage of bat-
tle"? It was to get the better of our assailants, and

35

having done so, to take exactly those steps which we
should' then consider necessary to our present and
future safety. The more obstinate the resistance, the
more completely must it be subdued. It may not
even have been desirable, as Mr. Mill suggested long
since, that the victory over the rebellion should have
been easily and speedily won, and so have failed to
develop the true meaning of the conflict, to bring
out the full strength of the revolted section, and to
exhaust the means which would have served it for a
still more desperate future eff'ort. We cannot com-
plain that our task has proved too easy. We give our
Southern army, — for we must remember that it is
our army, after all, only in a state of mutiny, — we
give our Southern army credit for excellent spirit and
perseverance in the face of many disadvantages. But
we have a few plain facts which show the probable
course of events ; the gradual but sure operation of
the blockade ; the steady pushing back of the boun-
dary of rebellion, in spite of resistance at many points,
or even of such aggressive im-oads as that which our
armies are now meeting with their long lines of bay-
onets — may God grant them victory ! — the progress
of our arms down the Mississippi ; the relative value
of gold and currency at Eichmond and Washington.
If the index hands of force and credit continue to
move in the ratio of the past two years, where will
the Confederacy be ui twice or thrice that time"?

.36

Either all our statements of the relative numbers,
power and wealth of the two sections of the coun-
try signify nothing, or the resources of our oppo-
nents in men and means must be much nearer
exhaustion than our own. The running sand of the
hour-glass gives no warning, but runs as freely as
ever when its last grains are about to fall. The
merchant wears as bold a face the day before he is
proclaimed a bankrupt, as he wore at the height of
his fortunes. If Colonel Grierson found the Con-
federacy " a mere shell," so far as his equestrian
excursion carried him, how can we say how soon
the shell will collapse ] It seems impossible that
our own dissensions can produce anything more than
local disturbances, like the Morristown revolt, which
Washington put down at once by the aid of his
faithful Massachusetts soldiers. But in a rebellious
state dissension is ruin, and the violence of an
explosion in a strict ratio to the pressure on every
inch of the containing surface. Now we know the
tremendous force which has compelled the " una-
nimity " of the Southern people. There are men in
the ranks of the Southern army, if we can trust
the evidence which reaches us, who have been
recruited with packs of blood-hounds, and drilled,
as it were, with halters around their necks. We
know what is the bitterness of those who have

37

escaped this bloody harvest of the remorseless con-
spirators ; and from that we can judge of the ele-
ments of destruction incorporated with many of the
seemingly solid portions of the fabric of the rebel-
lion. The facts are necessarily few, but we can
reason from the laws of human nature as to what
must be the feelings of the people of the South to
their Northern neighbors. It is impossible that the
love of the life which they have had in common,
their glorious recollections, their blended histories,
their sympathies as Americans, their mingled blood,
their birthright as born under the same flag and pro-
tected by it the world over, their worship of the
same God under the same outward form, at least,
and in the folds of the same ecclesiastical organ-
izations, should all be forgotten, and leave nothing
but hatred and eternal alienation. Men do not
change in this way, and we may be quite sure that
the pretended unanimity of the South will some day
or other prove to have been a part of the machinery
of deception which the plotters have managed with
such consummate skill. It is hardly to be doubted
that in every part of the South, as in New Orleans,
in Charleston, in Richmond, there are multitudes who
wait for the day of deliverance, and for whom the
coming of " our good friends, the enemies," as Beian-
ger has it, will be Hke the advent of the angels to

38

the prison-cells of Paul and Silas. But there is no
need of depending on the aid of our white Southern
friends, be they many or be they few ; there is mate-
rial power enough in the North, if there be the
will to use it, to overrun and by degrees to recolo-
nize the South, and it is far from impossible that
some such process may be a part of the mechanism
of its new birth, spreading from various centres of
organization, on the plan which Nature follows when
she would fill a half-finished tissue with blood-
vessels, or change a temporary cartilage into bone.

Suppose, however, that the prospects of the war
were, we need not say absolutely hopeless, — because
that is the unfounded hypothesis of those whose
wish is father to their thought, — but full of dis-
couragement. Can we make a safe and honorable
peace as the quarrel now stands 1 As honor comes
before safety, let us look at that first. We have
undertaken to resent a supreme insult, and have had
to bear new insults and aggressions, even to the
direct menace of our national capital. The blood
which our best and bravest have shed will never sink
into the ground until our wrongs are righted, or the
power to right them is shown to be insufficient. If
we stop now all the loss of life has been butchery ;
if we carry out the intention with which we first

39

reseuted the outrage, the earth drinks up the blood
of our martyrs, and the rose of honor blooms for-
ever where it was shed. To accept less than
indemnity for the past, so far as the wretched
kingdom of the conspirators can afford it, and se-
curity for the future, would discredit us in our own
eyes and in the eyes of those who hate and long to
be able to despise us. But to reward the insults
and the robberies we have suffered, by the surren-
der of our fortresses along the coast, in the national
gulf, and on the banks of the national river, — and
this and much more would surely be demanded of
us, — would place the United Fraction of America
on a level with the Peruvian guano-islands, whose
ignoble but coveted soil is open to be plundered by
all comers !

If we could make a peace without dishonor, could
we make one that would be safe and lasting 1 We
could have an armistice, no doubt, long enough for
the flesh of our wounded men to heal and their
broken bones to knit together. But could we expect
a solid, substantial, enduring peace, in which the
grass would have time to grow in the war-paths, and
the bruised arms to rust, as the old G. R. cannon
rusted in our State arsenal, sleeping with their tom-
pions in their mouths, like so many sucking lambs'?
It is not the question whether the same set of

40

soldiers would be again summoned to the field. Let
us take it for granted that we have seen enough of
the miseries of warfare to last us for a while, and
keep us contented with militia musters and sham-
fights. The question is whether we could leave our
children and our children's children with any secure
trust that they would not have to go through the
very trials we are enduring, probably on a more
extended scale and in a more aggravated form.

It may be well to look at the prospects before us,
if a peace is established on the basis of Southern
independence, the only peace possible, unless we
choose to add ourselves to the four millions who
already call the Southern whites their masters.
We know what the prevailing, — we do not mean
universal, — spirit and temper of those people have
been for generations, and what they are like to be
after a long and bitter warfare. We know what
their tone is to the people of the North ; if we do
not, De Bow and Governor Hammond are school-
masters who will teach us to our heart's content.
We see how easily their social organization adapts
itself to a state of warfare. They breed a superior
order of men for leaders, an ignorant common-
alty ready to follow them as the vassals of feudal
times followed their lords ; and a race of bonds-
men, who, unless this war changes them from

41

chattels to human beings, will continue to add
vastly to their military strength in raising their food,
in building their fortifications, in all their mechan-
ical work of war, in fact, except, it may be, the
handling of weapons. The institution proclaimed
as the corner-stone of their government, does vio-
lence not merely to the precepts of religion, but
to many of the best human instincts, yet their
fanaticism for it is as sincere as any tribe of the
desert ever manifested for the faith of the Prophet
of Allah. They call themselves by the same name
as the Christians of the North, yet there is as
much difi"erence between their Christianity and that
of Wesley or of Channing, as between creeds that
in past times have vowed mutual extermination.
Still we must not call them barbarians because they
cherish an institution hostile to civilization. Their
highest culture stands out all the more brilliantly
from the dark background of ignorance against
which it is seen ; but it would be injustice to deny
. . that they have always shone in political science,
or that their military capacity makes them most
formidable antagonists, and that however inferior
they may be to their Northern fellow-countrymen in
most branches of literature and science, the social
elegancies and personal graces lend a singular charm
to the best circles among their dominant class.

42

Whom have we then for our neighbors, in case
of separation, — our neighbors along a splintered
line of fracture extending for thousands of miles,
— but the Saracens of the Nineteenth Century ; a
fierce, intolerant, fanatical people, the males of
which will be a perpetual standing army ; hating us
worse than the Southern Hamilcar taught his swarthy
boy to hate the Romans ; a people whose existence
as a hostile nation on our frontier, is incompatible
with our peaceful development ? Their wealth, the
proceeds of enforced labor, multiplied by the break-
ing up of new cotton-fields, and in due time by
the re-opening of the slave-trade, will go to pur-
chase arms, to construct fortresses, to fit out navies.
The old Saracens, fanatics for a religion which
professed to grow by conquest, were a nation of
predatory and migrating warriors. The Southern
people, fanatics for a system essentially aggressive,
conquering, wasting, which cannot remain stationary,
but must grow by alternate appropriations of labor
and of land, will come to resemble their earlier
prototypes. Already, even, the insolence of their
language to the people of the North is a close
imitation of the style which those proud and arro-
gant Asiatics aff"ected toward all the nations of
Europe. What the " Christian dogs " were to the
followers of Mahomet, the " accursed Yankees," the

43

" Northern mudsills " are to the followers of the
Southern Moloch. The accomplishments which we
find in their choicer circles, were prefigured in the
court of the chivalric Saladin, and the long train of
Painim knights who rode forth to conquest under
the Crescent. In all branches of culture, their
heathen predecessors went far beyond them. The
schools of mediaeval learning were filled with Ara-
bian teachers. The heavens declare the glory of the
Oriental astronomers, as Algorab and Aldebaran re-
peat their Arabic names to the students of the
starry firmament. The sumptuous edifice erected by
the Art of the Nineteenth Century, to hold the
treasures of of its Industry, could show nothing
fairer than the court which copies the Moorish
palace that crowns the summit of Granada. Yet
this was the power which Charles the Hammer,
striking for Christianity and civilization, had to
break like a potter's vessel; these were the people
whom Spain had to utterly extirpate from the land
where they had ruled for centuries !

Prepare, then, if you unseal the vase which
holds this dangerous Afrit of Southern nationality,
for a power on your borders that will be to you
what the Saracens were to Europe before the son
of Pepin shattered their armies, and fiung the
shards and shivers of their broken strength upon

44

the refuse heap of extinguished barbarisms. Pre-
pare for the possible fate of Christian Spain;
for a slave market in Philadelphia ; for the Alham-
bra of a Southern Caliph on the grounds consecrated
by the domestic virtues of a long line of Presidents
and their exemplary families. Remember the ages
of border warfare betv?een England and Scotland,
closed at last by the union of the two kingdoms.
Recollect the hunting of the deer on the Cheviot
hills, and all that it led to ; then think of the
game which the dogs will follow open-mouthed
across our Southern border, and all that is like to
follow which the child may rue that is unborn ;
think of these possibilities, or probabilities, if you
will, and say whether you are ready to make a
peace which will give you such a neighbor ; which
may betray your civilization as that of half the
Peninsula was given up to the Moors; which may
leave your fair border provinces to be crushed under
the heel of a tyrant, as Holland was left to b,e
trodden down by the Duke of Alva !

No ! no ! fellow-citizens ! We must fight in this
quarrel until one side or the other is exhausted.
Rather than suffer all that we have poured out of our
blood, all that we have lavished of our substance to
have been expended in vain, and to bequeath an un-
settled question, an unfinished conflict, an unavenged

45

insult, an unrighted wrong, a stained escutcheon,
a tarnished shield, a dishonored flag, an unheroic
memory to the descendants of those who have always
claimed that their fathers were heroes ; rather than
do all this it were hardly an American exaggeration
to say, better that the last man and the last dollar
should be followed by the last woman and the last
dime, the last child and the last copper !

There are those who profess to fear that our Gov-
ernment is becoming a mere irresponsible tyranny.
If there are any who really believe that our present
Chief Magistrate means to found a dynasty for him-
self and family, — that a coup d'etat is in preparation
by which he is to become Abraham, Dei Gratia Rex,
— they cannot have duly pondered his letter of June
12th, in which he unbosoms himself with the sim-
plicity of a rustic lover called upon by an anxious
parent to explain his intentions. The force of his
a]:gument is not at all injured by the homeliness of
his illustrations. The American people are not much
afraid that their liberties will be usurped. An army
of legislators is not very likely to throw away its
political privileges, and the idea of a despotism resting
on an open ballot-box, is like that of Bunker Hill
Monument built on the waves of Boston Harbor. We
know pretty nearly how much of sincerity there is in

46

the fears so clamorously expressed, and how far they
are found in company with uncompromising hostility
to the armed enemies of the Nation. We have
learned to put a true value on the services of the
watch-dog who bays the moon, but does not bite
the thief !

The, men who are so busy holy-stoning the quarter-
deck, while all hands are wanted to keep the ship
afloat, can no doubt show spots upon it that would be
very unsightly in fair weather. No thoroughly loyal
man, however, need suffer from any arbitrary exercise
of power, such as emergencies always give rise to.
If any half-loyal man forgets his code of half decencies
and half duties sO far as to become obnoxious to the
peremptory justice which takes the place of slower
forms in all centres of conflagration, there is no
sympatihy foi' him among the soldiers who are risking
their lives for us ; perhaps there is even more satis-
faction than when an avowed traitor is caught and
punished. For of all men who are loathed by generous
natures, such as fill the ranks of the armies of the
Union, none are so thoroughly loathed as the men who
contrive to keep just within the limits of the law, while
their whole conduct provokes others to break it ; whose
patriotism consists in stopping an inch short of treason,
and whose political morality has for its safeguard a
just respect for the jailer and the hangman ! The

47

simple preventive against all possible injustice a citizen
is like to suffer at the hands of a government which in
its need and haste must of course commit many errors,
is to take care to do nothing that will directly or in-
directly help the enemy, or hinder the government in
carrying on the war. When the clamor against usur-
pation and tyranny comes from citizens who can claim
this negative merit, it may be listened to. When it
comes from those who have done what they could to
serve their country, it will receive the attention it
deserves. Doubtless there may prove to be wrongs
which demand righting, but the pretence of any plan
for changing the essential principle of our self-
governing system is a figment which its contrivers
laugh over among themselves. Do the citizens of
Harrisburg, or of Philadelphia, quarrel to-day about
the strict legality of an executive act meant in good
faith for their protection against the invader 1 We
are all citizens of Harrisburg, all citizens of Phila-
delphia, in this hour of their peril, and with the
enemy at work in our own harbors we begin to
understand the difference between a good and bad
citizen ; the man that helps and the man that hin-
ders ; the man who, while the pirate is in sight, com-
plains that our anchor is dragging in his mud, and
the man who violates the proprieties, like our brave
Portland brothers, when they jumped on board the

48

first steamer they could reach, cut her cable, and bore
down on the Corsair, with a habeas corpus act that
lodged twenty buccaneers in Fort Preble before
sunset !

We cannot, then, we cannot be circling inward
to be swallowed up in the whirlpool of national de-
struction. If our borders are invaded, it is only as
the spur that is driven into the courser's flank to
rouse his slumbering mettle. If our property is
taxed, it is. only to teach us that liberty is worth
paying for as well as fighting for. We are pour-
ing out the most generous blood of our youth and
manhood ; alas ! this is always the price that must
be paid for the redemption of a people. What have
we to complain of, whose granaries are choking
with plenty, whose streets are gay with shining
robes and glittering equipages, whose industry is
abundant enough to reap all its overflowing har-
vest, yet sure of employment and of its just re-
ward, the soil of whose mighty valleys is an in-
exhaustible mine of fertility, whose mountains cover
up such . stores of heat and power, imprisoned in
their coal measures, as would warm all the inhab-
itants and work all the machinery of our planet for
unnumbered ages, whose rocks pour out rivers of
oil, whose streams run yellow over beds of golden
sand, — what have we to complain of?

49

Have we degenerated from our English fathers, so
that we cannot do and bear for our national salva-
tion what they have done and borne, over and over
again, for their form of government 1 Could Eng-
land, in her wars with Napoleon, bear an income
tax of ten per cent., and must we faint under the
burden of an income tax of three per cent. ? Was
she content to negotiate a loan at fifty-three for the
hundred, and that paid in depreciated paper, and
can we talk about financial ruin with our national
stocks ranging from one to eight or nine above par,
and the " five-twenty" war loan eagerly taken by our
own people to the amount of nearly two hundred
millions, without any check to the flow of the cur-
rent pressing inwards against the doors of the Treas"
ury 1 Except in those portions of the country which
are the immediate seat of war, or liable to be made
so, and which, having the greatest interest not to
become the border states of hostile nations, can best
afford to suffer now, the state of prosperity and
comfort is such as to astonish those who visit us
from other countries. What are war taxes to a
nation which, as we are assured on good authority,
has more men worth a million now, than it had
worth ten thousand dollars at the close of the Rev-
olution, — whose whole property is a hundred times,
and whose commerce, inland and foreign, is five

50

hundred times what it was then ] But we need not
study Mr. Stille's pamphlet and "Thompson's Bank
Note Reporter," to show us what we know well
enough — that so far from having occasion to trem-
ble in fear of our impending ruin, we must rather
blush for our material prosperity. For the multi-
tudes who are unfortunate enough to be taxed for a
million or more of course we must feel deeply, at
the same time suggesting that the more largely they
report their incomes to the tax-gatherer, the more
consolation they will find in the feeling that they
have served their country. But — let us say it
plainly — it will not hurt our people to be taught
that there are other things to be cared for besides
money making and money spending ; that the time
has come when manhood must assei't itself by brave
deeds and noble thoughts ; when womanhood must
assume its most sacred office, " to warn, to comfort,"
and, if need be, "to command" those whose ser-
vices their country calls for. This Northern section
of the land has become a great variety shop, of
which the Atlantic cities are the long-extended
counter. We have grown rich for whaf? To put
gilt bands on coachmen's hats ] To sweep the foul
sidewalks with the heaviest silks which the toiling
artisans of France can send us ? To look through
plate-glass windows, and pity the brown soldiers, —

51

or sneer at the black ones'? to reduce the speed of
trotting horses a second or two below its old min-
imum ■? to color meerschaums 1 to flaunt in laces,
and sparkle in diamonds 1 to dredge our maidens'
hair with gold-dust] to float through life, the pas-
sive shuttlecocks of fashion, from the avenues to
the beaches, and back again from the beaches to
the avenues 1 Was it for this that the broad do-
main of the Western hemisphere was kept so long
unvisited by civilization ] — for this, that Time, the
father of empires, unbound the virgin zone of this
youngest of his daughters, and gave her, beautiful
in the long veil of her forests, to the rude embrace
of the adventurous Colonist 1 All this is what we
see around us, now, — now, while we are actually
fighting this great battle, and supporting this great
load of indebtedness. Wait till the diarhonds go
back to the Jews of Amsterdam ; till the plate-glass
window bears the fatal announcement. For Sale or
to Let ; till the voice of our Miriam is obeyed, as
she sings,

" Weave no more silks, ye Lyons looms ! "

till the gold-dust is combed from the golden locks,
and hoarded to buy bread ; till the fast-driving youth
smokes his clay-pipe on the platform of the horse-
car ; till the music-grinders cease because none will

52

pay them ; till there are no peaches in the windows
at twenty-four dollars a dozen, and no heaps of ba-
nanas and pine-apples selling at the street-corners ;
till the ten-flounced dress has but three flounces,
and it is felony to drink champagne ; — wait till
these changes show themselves, the signs of deeper
wants, the preludes of exhaustion and bankruptcy ;
then let us talk of the Maelstrom ; — but till then,
let us not be cowards with our purses, while brave
men are emptying their hearts upon the earth for
us ; let IIS not whine over our imaginary ruin, while
the reversed current of circling events is carrying us
farther and farther, every hour, beyond the influ-
ence of the great failing which was born of our
wealth, and of the deadly sin which was our fatal
inheritance !

Let us take a brief general glance at the wide
field of discussion we are just leaving.

On Friday, the twelfth day of the month of April,
in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-
one, at half-past four of the clock in the afternoon,
a cannon was aimed and fired by the authority of
South Carolina at the wall of a fortress belonging
to the United States. Its ball carried with it the
hatreds, the rages of thirty years, shaped and cooled
in the mould of malignant deliberation. Its wad

53

was the charter of our national existence. Its muz-
zle was pointed at the stone which bore the symbol
of our national sovereignty. As the echoes of its
thunder died away, the telegraph clicked one word
through every office of the land. That word was
War!

War is a child that devours its nurses one after
another until it is claimed by its 'true parents. This
war has eaten its way backward through all the
technicalities of lawyers, learned in the infinitesimals
of ordinances and statutes ; through all the casuis-
tries of divines, experts in the diff'erential calculus
of conscience and duty, until it stands revealed to
all men as the natural and inevitable confiict of two
incompatible forms of civilization, one or the other
of which must dominate the central zone of the
continent, and eventually claim the hemisphere for
its development.

We have reached the region of those broad prin-
ciples and large axioms which the wise Romans,
the world's lawgivers, always recognized as above
all special enactments. We have come to that solid
substratum acknowledged by Grotius in his great
Treatise : " Necessity itself, which reduces things to
the mere right of Nature." The old rules which
were enough for our guidance in quiet times, have
become as meaningless " as moonlight on the dial

54

of the day." We have followed precedents as long
as they could guide us ; now we must make prece-
dents for the ages which are to succeed us.

If we are frightened from our object by the
money we have spent, the current prices of United
States stocks show that we value our nationality at
only a small fraction of our wealth. If we feel that
we are paying too dearly for it in the blood of our
people, let us recall those grand words of Samuel
Adams :

"I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty,
though it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and
ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of a thousand were
to survive and retain his liberty ! "

What we want now is a strong purpose ; the pur-
pose of Luther, when he said in repeating his Pater
Noster, fiat voluntas mea, — let my will be done ;
though he considerately added quia Tua, — because
my will is Thine. We want the virile energy of
determination which made the oath of Andrew
Jackson sound so like the devotion of an ardent
saint that the recording angel might have entered
it unquestioned among the prayers of the faithful.

War is a grim business. Two years ago our
women's fingers were busy making " Havelocks."
It seemed to us then as if the Havelock made half

55

the soldier ; and now we smile to think of those
days of inexperience and illusion. We know now
what War means, and we cannot look its dull, dead
ghastliness in the face unless we feel that there is
some great and noble principle behind it. It makes
little difference what we thought we were fighting
for at first ; we know what we are fighting for now,
and what we are fighting against.

We are fighting for our existence. We say to
those who would take back their several contribu-
tions to that undivided unity which we call the Na-
tion; the bronze is cast; the statue is on its pedes-
tal ; you cannot reclaim the brass you flung into the
crucible ! There are rights, possessions, privileges,
policies, relations, duties, acquired, retained, called
into existence in virtue of the principle of absolute
solidarity, — belonging to the United States as an
^rganic whole, — which caimot be divided, which
none of its constituent parties can claim as its own,
which perish out of its living frame when the wild
forces of rebellion tear it limb from limb, and which
it must defend, or confess self-government itself a
failiire.

We are fighting for that Constitution upon which
our national existence reposes, now subjected by
those who fii-ed the scroll on which it was written
from the cannon at Fort Sumter, to all those chances

56

which the necessities of war entail upon every hu-
man arrangement, but still the venerable charter of
our wide Eepublic.

We cannot fight for these objects without attack-
ing the one mother cause of all the progeny of less-
er antagonisms. Whether we know it or not,
whether we mean it or not, we cannot help fighting
against the system that has proved the soxu'ce of all
those miseries which the author of the Declaration
of Independence trembled to anticipate. And this
ought to make us willing to do and to suffer cheer-
fully. There were Holy Wars of old, in which it
was glory enough to die, wars in which the one •
aim was to rescue the sepulchre of Christ from the
hands of infidels. The sepulchre of Christ is not
in Palestine ! He rose from that burial-place more
than eighteen hundred years ago. He is crucified
wherever his brothers are slain without cause ; he
lies buried wherever man, made in his Maker's
image, is entombed in ignorance lest he should
learn the rights which his Divine Master gave him!
This is our Holy War, and we must fight it against
that great General who will bring to it all the pow-
ers with which he fought against the Almighty
before he was cast down from Heaven. He has
retained many a cunniag advocate to recruit for
him; he has bribed many a smooth-tongued preach-

57

er to be his chaplain. ; he has engaged the sordid
by their avarice, the timid by their fears, the profli-
gate by their love of adventure, and thousands of
nobler natures by motives which we can all under-
stand ; whose delusion we pity as we ought always
to pity the error of those who know not what they
do. Against him or for him we are all called upon
to declare ourselves. There is no neutrality for any
single true-born American. If any seek such a po-
sition, the stony finger of Dante's awful Muse points
them to their place in the antechamber of the
Halls of Despair,

— "witli that ill band
Of angels mixed, wlio nor rebellious proved,
Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves
Were only." —

— " Fame of them the world bath none
Nor suffers; mercy and justice scorn them both.
Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by.''

We must use all the means which God has put
into our hands to serve Him against the enemies of
civilization. We must make and keep the great
river free, whatever it costs us ; it is strapping up
the forefoot of the wild, untamable rebellion. We
must not be too nice in the choice of our agents.
Non eget Mauri jaculis, — no African bayonets want-
ed, — was well enough while we did not yet know

■58

the might of that desperate giant we had to deal
with; but Tros, Tyriusve, — white or black, — is the
safer motto now; for a good soldier, like a good
horse, cannot be of a bad color. The iron-skins, as
well as the iron-clads, have already done us noble
service, and many a mother will clasp the returning
boy, many a wife will welcome back the war-worn
husband, whose smile would never again have glad-
dened his home, but that, cold in the shallow trench
of the battle-field, lies the half-buried form of the
unchained bondsman whose dusky bosom sheaths
the bullet which would else have claimed that dar-
ling as his country's sacrifice !

We shall have success if we truly will success, —
not otherwise. It may be long in coming, — Heaven
only knows through what trials and humblings we
may have to pass before the fuU strength of the Na-
tion is duly arrayed and led to victory. We must
be patient, as our fathers were patient ; even in our
worst calamities we must remember that defeat itself
may be a gain where it costs our enemy more in
relation to his strength than it costs ourselves. But
if, in the inscrutable providence of the Almighty,
this generation is disappointed in its lofty aspira-
tions for the race, if we have not virtue enough to
ennoble our whole people, and make it a nation of
sovereigns, we shall at least hold in undying honor

59

those who vindicated the insulted majesty of the
Eepublic, and struck at her assailants so long as a
drum-beat summoned them to the field of duty.

Citizens of Boston, sons and daughters of New
England, men and women of the North, brothers
and sisters in the bond of the American Union,
you have among you the scarred and wasted sol-
diers who have shed their blood for your temporal
salvation. They bore your Nation's emblems brave-
ly through the fire and smoke of the battle-field;
nay, their own bodies are stairred with bullet-wounds
and striped with sabre-cuts, as if to mark them as
belonging to their Country until their dust becomes
a portion of the soil which they defended. In every
Northern graveyard slumber the victims of this de-
stroying struggle. Many whom you remember play-
ing as children amidst the clover blossoms of our
Northern fields, sleep under nameless mounds with
strange Southern wild fiowers blooming over them.
By those wounds of living heroes, by those graves
of fallen martyrs, by the hopes of your children,
and the claims of your children's children yet un-
born, in the name of outraged honor, in the interest
of violated sovereignty, for the life of an imperilled
Nation, for the sake of men everywhere and of our
common humanity, for the glory of God and the ad-
vancement of His Kingdom on earth, your Country

60

calls upon you to stand by her through, good report
and through evil report, in triumph and in defeat,
until she emerges from the great war of Western
civilization, Queen of the broad continent, Arbitress
in the councils of earth's emancipated peoples ;
until the flag that fell from the wall of Fort Sumter
floats again inviolate, supreme, over all her ancient
inheritance, every fortress, every capital, every ship,
and this warring land is once more a United Nation!

ORATION

DELIVERED BEFORE

THE CITY AUTHORITIES OE BOSTON,

ON THE

FOURTH OF JULY, 1864,

HON. THOMAS EUSSELL,

BOSTON:
J. E. FARWELL AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE CITY,

37 CONUltESS STREET.
1864.

CITY or BOSTON.

In Board of Aldermen, July 5, 1864.
. Ordered : That the thanks of the City Council be and
they are hereby presented, to the Hon. Thomas Russell,
for the eloquent and patriotic Oration delivered before the
Municipal Authorities of Boston, on the occasion of the Cele-
bration of the Eighty-Eighth Anniversary of the Declaration
of American Independence ; and that he be requested to furnish
a copy for publication.

Passed ; sent down for concurrence.

OTIS NORCROSS, Chairman.

In Common Council, July 7, 1864.
Concurred.

GEORGE S. HALE, President.

Approved July 8, 1864.

F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Mayor.

ORATION

Meeting to keep the anniversary of our Nation's
birth in this time of the Nation's trial, — assembled to
renew our allegiance to the flag, dearer to us in its
hour of peril than when it waved in unchallenged
dominion over half a continent, while the varying
fortune of war " half conceals, half discloses " that
beloved symbol, — how shall we approach our theme,
except by reverently lifting our eyes toward Him
who holds the destinies of nations in his hands,
and beseeching him, that as He was with the fathers,
so He may ever be with us?

In more peaceful times it would be pleasant to
linger among the grand events that heralded the ad-
vent of Independence, — to trace the growth of Liberty
through the stormy times of the Stamp Act and Tea
Tax ; through all the agonies and glories of provincial
and colonial life, back to the day when the wearied
Mayflower furled her sails within the protecting sweep
of Cape Cod, and when the woods of New England
first rang with the anthems of our Pilgrim Fathers.
And while you will agree with me that the day is

b . ORATION.

to be kept, not by adorning the tombs of the dead,
but by takmg such counsel as is fitted to guard the
homes of the li-vdng and the heritage of their children,
yet even now we shall do well to glance for a moment
at the stirring scenes which immediately preceded the
Declaration, asking always what is the lesson which
those days teach to ours]

It is good to tread, in imagination, the courts of
the Old State House, and to hear James Otis pleading
against Writs of Assistance, breathing into Indepen-
dence the breath of life, founding his argument upon
those principles of natural right, which would strike
every fetter from human limbs.

We enter Faneuil Hall and the Old South Church,
and learn at thronged town meetings how cheap
our fathers held trade, wealth, comfort, life, when
their rights as men were at stake. We hear the
pulpits resounding with appeals to patriotism and de-
nunciations of oppression. We see the women of
America denying themselves the choicest luxury of
their daily meals, wearing homespun garments, weav-
ing homespun garments, rejoicing that in any way
they could contribute to the greatness of their country.

We feel the thrill that runs through all the colo-
nies ; we hear the word that trembles on every lip.
The thrill is an instinct for Union, and the word is
"join or die." We learn that American Indepen-
dence could only be achieved through Union, and we

ORATION. I

know that by Union alone can it be maintained. And
it is not " for empire " that the North is fighting ; but
for national existence ; and, therefore, " on this line,"
and for this end we must fight it out, till it pleases
God to send us victory.

Loud threats roll across the sea, loudest of all against
the unruly province of Massachusetts Bay and the re-
bellious town of Boston. So it has ever been ; so may
it ever be. Far distant be the day when the friends
of tyranny shall speak well of Boston ; when the
haters of human rights shall cease to hate old Massa-
chusetts.

But, while hated by those Avhose enmity was honor,
the patriot province and the " martyr town " were
loved by all who loved liberty. When the Boston
Port Bill sought to crush out the life of this com-
munity by cutting off its trade — a threat not un-
known in later times — then, not only from all the
villages of New England, but from distant States,
came the freewill offerings of friends.

First of all — Ave will remember it even now —
came the generous gift of rice from South Carolina,
which in the hour of Carolina's need our fathers
gladly repaid. And, a little later, when certain mem-
bers of Congress denounced the fanaticism of New
England, spoke of the contest as her war, and pro-
posed that she should be left to fight alone, the great
statesman of South Carolina rejoiced that there was

8 ORATION.

such a people, and spoke of New England as an asy-
lum where honest men might take refuge, if all the
rest of the world should prove false to freedom.

When the sons of Carolina have learned to love
liberty with all the warmth of that century, and all the
light of this, then may the children of the two proud
old Commonwealths once more remember that their
fathers loved each other as brothers.

The distress of Boston was discussed in Virginia,
where the most eloquent speech was made by George
Washington. And this was his speech: " I will raise
a regiment of a thousand men. I will subsist them
at my own expense. I will march at their head to
the relief of Boston." How, in the hour of national
peril, the man of action stands pre-eminent above the
man of words ! How, for the last three years, has
our country, through all her bleeding wounds, cried
out for one such man ! How all hearts rejoice in
the belief that at last the man of action has been
found in our silent, persistent, triumphant General
Grant ]

The time for action rapidly approached. On the
evening of the 18th of April, 1775, British soldiers
met at the foot of the Common on their way to
East Cambridge and to Concord. As they embarked,
two lanterns, provided by the care of Paul Revere,
flung out their light from the steeple of the Old
North Church to warn the miuute-men of Middle-

ORATION. 9

sex that now the hour had come to strike for free-
dom.- It was a happy omen, — true token that, when-
ever the liberties of America are in danger, the
warning light shall still shine from the church.
Thank God, that in our day the light is not dim-
med ; that in the hands of our watchmen the trumpet
sends forth no uncertain sound.

And now, as the martyrs of Lexington fall on the
village green, in the gray light of morning as Har-
rington falls, and rises, and seeks to meet his wi/e,
who is hastening to embrace him, and sinks again
and dies, before she can fold him in her arms, — tell
me, shall we unite in the lamentations of those whose
dearest' friends had been slain in sight of their
homes, or shall we join in the well-known exclama-
tion of Samuel Adams, himself a fugitive, when he
heard the fatal volley, and cried out in words so
often quoted, " Oh, what a glorious morning is this!"
— glorious, because he knew that what was sowed
in tears should be' reaped in triumph; glorious, be-
cause history had taught him that God's appointed
method for the remission of national sins and for the
regeneration of national life has always been by " the
shedding of blood."

Next, we stand by the North Bridge at Concord
and listen to "the shot heard round the world!"
Among the little band of patriots, let us fix our eyes
on one. The words are few which tell us what we

10 ORATION.

know of Isaac Davis ; but they sketch a village hero.
He hears the alarm-drum, and, making haste to obey
the summons, as he leaves his house at Acton, he
says to his wife, " Take good care of the children,"
as if the shadow of death fell even then upon his
eyes. His company march to Concord to the live-
liest of homely tunes, as little martial as the Spartan
flute, which poets have loved to commemorate. He
briefly reports to the commanding oflicer : " I have n't
a man that is afraid to go." He claims the advance,
and as he steps forward to meet the fatal bullet,
a light glows on his face and kindles in his eyes,
which his companions never could describe and never
could forget. Who knows what visions were vouch-
safed to him in that moment,— visions of indepen-
dence achieved, of America triumphant — promises, it
may be, of the greater glory yet to be ? When we
read of such a death, we know what the poet meant
when he wrote —

" One glorious hour of crowded life,
Is worth an age without a name."

It was a sad moment when his lifeless form was
born to the presence of his bereaved wife. But as
years rolled on,-— as the news of Saratoga and York-
town, of peace and victory, were carried to the deso-
lated home, — who does not believe that grief was
forgotten in joy and pride, and gratitude, that she

ORATION. 11

had been allowed to make so dear a sacrifice for her
country's cause] And when the representatives of
thu-ty powerful States ministered to her wants ; when
the words of monumental inscriptions, of orators and
of historians paid tribute to the dead, do you think
she envied her neighbors, who together had lived out
their eighty years of peace and comfort ] or would
she not rather exclaim : " I would not give the memory
of my dead husband for any position in Christendom ! "
Some of you have sent to the war husbands, brothers,
sons, who will no more return forever. For you
there is a mournful sound even in the bells that
usher in the old Jubilee of Freedom. The morning
and noon, and evening salutes seem like the minute-
guns that mark the burial of the dead. But because
they died for Union and for Liberty you do not count
their lives as lost. Already, those whose friends fell
on the 19th of April, 1861, feel comforted as they
see loyal Maryland standing side by side with Massa-
chusetts, and Baltimore pressing hard upon the ad-
vancing footsteps of Boston. And when the' work
of loyalty is complete ; when our country stands
before the world triumphant and peaceful, purified
by adversity, ennobled by her trials, with old preju-
dices forgotten, with new powers displayed, with
grand virtues developed, with a new name among
the nations, with a new and nobler life in her own
heart; when the old national anthems, the old

12 ORATION.

national standard, the old national anniversary, shall
be the common glory of all the States, and of all
the people in all the States, then will the blood of
the faUen have borne its perfect fruit, and the sorrow
of death will be swallowed up in the joy of victory.
The swift pursuit that followed the retreating
British, and besieged them within the walls of
Boston, attested the ready patriotism of our fathers.
But it bore witness, also, to the drill and discipline
with which those fathers had prepared the militia
of New England for their country's service. Here,
too, is a lesson for this day ; and here, again, we
match the lesson of the past. After the lapse of
eighty-six years, Massachusetts was again called on
for prompt action in arms. Her response is part of
the history of the Union. AH honor to the patriot-
ism, that rallied so grandly to defend the Capital.
Honor to the noble Governor in whom that patriot-
ism was embodied. And one word of remembrance
and of honor to-day and always, for the predecessor
of that Governor, who recognized the value of a
citizen soldiery, before it was fashionable to recog-
nize it; who helped to raise the volunteer militia
from their low estate, and prepared them for the
service of their country. " Holiday soldiers," men
called them once. And, in many a bloody field,
they have shown that the day which brings them
face to face with armed Eebellion is to them the
brighest holiday of their lives.

ORATION. 13

Next, in reviewing the early scenes of war, we
stand on Bunker Hill and share the varied emotions
that belong to the Hth of June. In darker hours
we have loved to remind each other that our exist-
ence as a nation dates from a lost battle. On the
evening of that day swift couriers told the country
that our fathers had retreated ; that Charlestown was
in ashes ; that Warren was among the slain. But
they told of such a spirit, and aroused such a spirit,
as was an assurance of final victory. So did this
contest begin with a lost battle for the North. But,
as we saw how the tidings were received, we could
not call it wholly a disaster. We saw a noble na-
tion not sinking in despair, but rising in defiance.
The languid love of country which had slept in
hours of peace, became " the live thunder " of awak-
ened and indignant loyalty. And the people came
forward off"ering their substance, their services, their
lives ; ready to sacrifice that which it is harder to
give up, even their political prejudices, forgetting
past differences, burying all partisanship, determined
that while treason threatened the Capital, they would
know nothing but an endangered country and an in-
sulted flag. Oh, for a return of that spirit ! It were
cheaply purchased by the bombardment of a North-
ern city.

Again, I thought of Bunker Hill, as early on a
gloomy morning in December, 1862, I stood by the

14 OKATION.

banks of the Rappahannock, and witnessed the
withdrawal of a brave, noble, baffled army. The dim
stars looked down sadly upon our retiring troops,
and the wind that swept through the valley seemed
to be sighing for the defeat of a great cause, and
the downfall of a great nation. But as I sat by the
camp-fires of the bivouac, — better still, as I stood by
the bedside of wounded soldiers in many a hospital,
and' heard men freshly borne from that lost battle at
Fredericksburg, longing for health and strength that
they might once more follow to the field the same
commander, any commander, — always the same dear
flag, — I felt that, in spite of all that we had lost, the
triumph of the North was sure.

One lesson more from Bunker Hill. It has been
said, that when Pitcairn mounted the rampart of the
redoubt, he fell pierced by a bullet from the musket
of a colored volunteer. And do you ask, " is the in-
evitable negro here also?" Yes, he is here. He
stood on Bunker Hill, as afterwards he stood in the
lines at Ehode Island, in the earthworks at Eed Bank,
as now he stands side by side with the bravest before
the walls of Eichmond, where the crimsoned ground
gives token that he is indeed, " of one blood " with his
comrades. He is here, by no fault of his, by no choice
of his, for our good or for evil ; for good, if we
frankly accept his proffered aid, with its honest, natural
results ; for evil, if now, when our rivers are turned

ORATION, 15

into blood, and when the first-born in so many a house-
hold lies dead, we still refuse to listen to the voice that
thunders from on high — " Let my People go."

After the 17th of June, the heart of the nation cried
out for independence, while Congress, lagging far be-
hind the people, delayed to speak the decisive word.
Before the 19th of April, " no thinking man" breathed
such a wish. The leading patriots repelled the charge
of desiring it, as a slander. In 1774, Congress, on' the
motion of a most radical member, passed a resolve,
which not only excluded all idea of separation, but
admitted the right of Parliament to lay taxes for the
regulation of trade. And timid, honest men pointed
to this vote, and could not see that ages of progress
had rolled on since it was passed. They failed to rec-
ognize the truth stated by Paine in his Common Sense,
that " all plans and proposals prior to the 19th of
April, i. e. the commencement of hostilities, are like
an old almanac, however proper once, useless and
superseded now." They did not know that in revolu-
tionary times the wisdom of last year is folly, and the
truth of yesterday is a lie to-day.

Bolder spirits said ; " What was true in 1774, has
ceased to be true in '75, in the presence of actual war.
Concord and Bunker Hill, the burning of Charlestown
and Falmouth, the fall of Warren and Montgomery,
have changed our relations to England, and conferred
new rights on the colonists. The land which has been

16 ORATION.

enriched with the blood of so many brave men must
forever be a free land. Since we must fight, it should
be with every power, and for the highest prize." They
argued truly, that foreign nations which would care
little for a technical issue of constitutional law, would
be moved to sympathy when the contest concerned the
freedom of a continent. These bolder counsels, and
safer, became bolder, finally prevailed, and our country
took its place amoiig the nations of the earth.

I need hardly point out the parallel of our own day.
In 1861, Congress, "by a vote nearly unanimous," re-
solved that Government had no right and no purpose
to attack slavery in the States ; and, as the conserv-
atives of '75 turned to the resolutions of 74, so do
many worthy men cling to the vote of 1861. But the
people have said : " Events have changed, and our
rights have changed with them. Slavery is no longer
a quiet, ' domestic institution.' It is an aggressive
force ; it has become the strength of the Rebellion. It
is an engine of war which treason uses against us, and
which we ought to turn against treason." They have
called upon our rulers to put on the whole armor of
the powers with which the fact 'of war has supplied
them. They have urged that in repressing Eebellion,
it is not only a right but a duty to wield " the State's
whole thunder." And as history records that the folly
of Stamp Act, and Tea Tax and Port BiU made us an
independent nation, so future historians will relate that

OKATION. 17

the madness of Secession and the crime of Rebellion
wrought the deliverance of a race from bondage. And
it will be reckoned among the chief glories of our age
and of our country, that —

"In her councils statesmen met,
Who knew the seasons, when to take
Occasion by the hand, and make
The bounds of freedom wider yet."

Before uniting in the Declaration Congress had done
the other act that renders their name immortal. They
had placed Washington at the head of the army.
Would that time allowed us to trace his steps from his
first bloodless victory on Dorchester Heights, victory of
the spade and pickaxe, those emblems of soldierly en-
durance and patience, of which his whole life was the
fitter emblem, — on through the reverses in New York,
the brilliant retreat across New Jersey, the sorrows of
Valley Forge, to the crowning glory of YoAtown. Every
hour of his life for these seven years teaches a people
engaged in a war for existence the duty of uncondi-
tional loyalty to their country, unwavering hope of her
triumph. These are the great lessons which his life
affords to ours.

I use the word loyalty as representing the senti-
ment, the instinct, the passion of patriotism. I know
it has been denied by foreign writers that this virtue
is possible in a republic, and it has been said on high

3

18 ORATION.

legal authority at home, that it only includes those
duties which are " required " by the Constitution and
the laws. Fortunately, no such theory had chilled
the hearts of our people, our sailors and our soldiers.
They did not ask foreign authors whether they were
capable of this virtue, nor take legal advice as to the
precise measure of allegiance which they owed to
the Union. They have taken counsel of their own
hearts, and clustered round the symbol of American
loyalty, — not the person of a monarch, but a stain-
less flag. And for those who deny the possibility of
passionate loyalty in republican bosoms, their simple
answer has been that for it they can die.

This sentiment imposes no terms on Government.
It does not demand the adoption of our favorite
measures or the promotion of our favorite men. It
simply follows the standard of the Eepublic. Its
language is —

"All that I am, and have, and hope,"

on earth, I consecrate to thee, my country. Even
rights which are held dear in peace, a patriot gladly
gives up in the hour of war, for he knows that all
rights, and possessions, and hopes depend upon his
country's triumph. Honest advice and fair criticism
are not only rights, but duties. The intellect as well
as the heart should pay its whole tribute to the Gov-
ernment engaged in war. But if any man (no mat-

ORATION. 19

ter to what party or faction he belongs) purposely
thwarts the efforts of Government in crushing Rebel-
lion, — if he opposes its policy in war simply be-
cause it is the policy of Government, — if for per-
sonal or political ends he rejoices in its failures, and
makes light of its success, and magnifies its losses,
and exaggerates its errors, — if any man, from what-
ever motive, seeks to weaken the arm of his country
when it is lifted against Rebellion, that man is a
traitor to America.

Here the civilian may learn a lesson from the sol-
dier. When the first day at Shiloh is to be retrieved,
or Fort Donelson is to be carried, or Missionary Ridge
is to be climbed, then is no time to quarrel about pay
or rations or promotions, no time to make ill-founded
complaints or well-founded complaints. Then is the
time to advance with one tread and to strike as Avith
one hand, till treason yields before united loyalty.
I borrow my confession of faith from the lips of one
brave soldier, as I find its best illustrations in the
lives of all brave soldiers. " My creed," said Burn-
side, " my creed is brief. This Government must be
sustained. This Rebellion must be put down." And
no words can equal the lesson of single-hearted de-
votion to country, taught by the lives of such pat-
riots as Grant and Meade and Hancock, who seek
no end but their country's good, — who know no
politics except her salvation.

20 ORATION.

I take an illustration of this virtue, as soldiers
understand it, from the well-known story of that
Ohio Colonel, who, on the second day of Murfrees-
boro', just as he was leading his regiment to the
charge, saw his son fall mortally wounded at his
side. He longed to kneel by the side of his dying
boy. He longed to hear the words of farewell
which that boy might speak for the mother who
should no more see her child returning to his home.
But there was duty to be done, — there was Eebel-
lion to be crushed, — there was a country to be
served ; and he only said to one that could be
spared, " Look out for Johnny," and led his regi-
ment right onward to battle and to victory. Just so
straightforward, so unwavering, so unconditional,
should be the loyalty with which we " march under
the flag, and keep step to the music" of an imper-
illed Union.

Does it seem hard to reconcile freedom of thought
and speech with devoted support of a Government
whose warlike policy you do not wholly approve ?
Learn a lesson, then, from the course of Daniel
Webster, during the war of 1812. He did not ap-
prove the war ; he thought it might have been
avoided ; he knew it might be better managed ; but
it was his country's, war and it was just ; and he
who claimed the right of free discussion for himself
and his children, — he whq would waiiitain it, liv-

ORATION. 21

ing or dying, exerted all his powers to make the
war successful. In later days, when taunted by Mr.
Calhoun, with his conduct at this period, he pointed
to the record, and defied any man to show that,' in
anything, he had been wanting in fidelity or loyalty
to the country which he served. He might well
boast that he and such as he had advocated that
gallant Navy, whose thunders testified to the loyalty
of New England, while they shook the supremacy
of Old England on the seas. It is but a few days,
since the feeble remnant of a noble regiment march-
ing through our streets reminded us that the example
of Daniel Webster had not been lost upon his son ;
and that in the hour of his country's need he had
been faithful unto death.

Take another illustration from English history.
When the minds of men were maddened by the
French Revolution, England plunged into a series of
wars that ought to teach her forever the folly of in-
terfering in the aflFairs of other States. And in the
darkest hour of that contest, when Austerlitz had
almost blotted out the boundaries from the map of
Europe, the chief opponent of the war was placed
in power. And how did Charles Fox bear himself
during the few months that remained to him of life ?
Hear what the great tory poet said of him : —

" Wben Europe crouched 'neatli France's yoke,
And Austria bowed and Prussia broke,

22 ORATION.

And the firm Eussian's purpose brave
Was bartered by a timorous slave,
Even then dishonor's peace he spurned,
. The sullied olive-branch returned.
Stood for his country's glories fast,
And nailed her colors to the mast."

In that spirit all the North should be to-day, as one
man for the Union.

Never had men such motives as Americans now have
for unbounded devotion to country. A great weight
of glory urges us on. An unfathomable gulf of infa-
my and despair awaits us if we fail. It is no less true
because we have heard it so often — it is the more true
because we have almost forgotten it, that on the issue
of this contest hang all our earthly hopes. If dis-
union prevails we can only look forward to new
disunions, to border war, to civil war, to foreign
domination, to usurpation, to anarchy, to all manner of
desolation. To-night the loving father, as he looks
upon his sleeping children, may well say, " if this
Eebellion triumphs, it were better for them that they
had never been born."

Even now a foreign reviewer looks for, " the dim
headlands of new empire," that are to emerge from the
stormy sea in which the Union has sunk. He speaks
of new disintegration of the Union as certain, and
gloats over the prospect, that this war, with all its
horrors, is only the first act in a grand drama of

ORATION. 23

revolutions. It is well to be taught by an enemy.
Never before was presented to a nation so immedi-
ately the issue of victory or death.

It is not for ourselves alone ; it is for the poor
and oppressed of all lands, that we would maintain
this great City of Eefuge. Hear what a liberal
writer of the greatest and richest among European
empires has just said of his own country: "Millions
of our laboring population live constantly in view of
penal pauperism, and nearly a million of them on
the average are actually paupers. They pass through
life without hope ; they die in degradation ; the only
haven of their old age, after a life of toil, is the
workhouse." He might have added that, from this
powerful monarchy, peaceful, insolent in its pros-
perity, the working men are now flying by tens of
thousands and seeking an asylum here, — hastening
from that

" Land of settled government "

to this distracted theatre of civil war. What an as-
surance of faith, what an omen of victory ! From the
interested forebodings of tory lords and of Quarterly
Eeviewers, I turn to the instinctive action of the
poor Irish immigrant, and gain new hope for my

country.

Nor is it only as a refuge ; it is as an example
alike to oppressors and oppressed, that we would

24 ORATION.

maintain the Union. How in past days our example
has cheered the hopes of those who love the rights
of man. From Italy, from Hungary, from Poland —
I dare not quite forget her ; from Ireland, true
" Niobe of nations," the victims of wrong have
looked toward America, and found hope.

I recall the words of Lord Brougham in his earlier
and better days. " Long," he said, " long may that
great Union last ! its endurance is of paramount im-
portance to the peace of the world, to the best interests
of humanity, to the general improvement of mankind."

Yes, long may it endure ! The prayer shall be
granted, although many a friend prove false.

If we needed any additional stimulus to our patriot-
ism we ought to find it in the devoted loyalty of the
Unionists at the South. When the story of their
fidelity, their endurance, their sufi"erings is fully written,
we shall gain new ideas of the capacity of men for
heroism. Shame on us, if, while we can keep a reg-
iment in the field, we deliver up these men and women
to the tender mercies of the Rebel government.

And does the loyalty of any man waver because of
the vast sacrifices we have made ] Those very sacri-
fices are reasons why we cannot falter in our course.
Voices from the past bid us go on. The slumbers
of the dead would be disquieted if we failed in service
to the cause for which they fell. * As we looked last
week upon " the riderless horse " of the brave Colonel

ORATION. 25

Blaisdell, we felt a new thrill of devotion. The com-
munity that sends such a man as General Stevenson
to die is pledged never to desert the cause for which
he gave his life. Time would fail me if I sought to
recall the names of those who have fought bravely
and died nobly. Honor and fame and gratitude to
their memory forever ; and better than honor and
fame and gratitude, unwavering devotion to the cause
which has been hallowed by their blood. Nor does
the call to duty come from the dead alone. The
mere presence of a brave man. like Colonel Guiney,
the commander of " the fighting ninth regiment," who
honors us to-day, ought to arouse us all. Well might
I be silent, and let his " dumb wounds " plead for the
cause he loves and serves so well.

One limit bounds the exercise of unconditional loy-
alty. It is the limit recognised by that loyal Scotchman,
who " would die to serve his country, but would not
do a base act to save her." No duty requires us to
undervalue the courage of our opponents. Self-
respect should teach us to cease from thus libelling
the valor of our own soldiers. It is time to refrain
from ridiculing the " fleet-footed Virginians," when
we remember that their State has given to the Rebel
side the misguided virtues of Robert Lee and of Stone-
wall Jackson. The time mav come when Southern
men will no longer sneer at the avarice of Yankees
who have sacrificed untold millions for a principle,

26 OEATION.

nor scoff at the cowardice of men whose steel they
have so often felt. Let us honestly admit that we are
surprised at the energy and endurance of the Kebels ;
that we wonder at the display of their power in the
construction of mail-clad ships, of railroad material,
of all the enginery of war. And may we not hope
that this newborn skill is providentially designed, with
free labor, to guide the South by unknown ways to
strange industrial glories, and to make of it a worthy
portion of the reconstructed Union'? And is it too
wild a dream, that one bond of that Union shall be
the mutual respect which each section has learned to
feel for the prowess of the other displayed upon a hun-
dred battle-fields "i

It is no part and no proof of loyalty to denounce
as traitors those who only differ with us as to the
true method of crushing Rebellion. Within the limits
of devotion to the Union there is room for wide differ-
ence of opinion as to measures and men. Is it wise
or just to announce to the South and to foreign nations
that theNorJt]i_4s almost equally divided between
Unionists and Rebels 7"^at the great State of Pennsyl-
vania can only give a slender majority against treason ;
that it needs a sharp contest, every Spring, to decide
whether New Hampshire is for Rebellion or against
it, and that no one is quite sure on which side the
State of New York now stands'? — No : reason with
your neighbors ; tell them, if you think so, that their

ORATION. 27

course threatens ruin to the country ; convince them if
you can ; vote them down if you can ; but do not
lightly hurl the charge of treason against those whose
whole hope in life is bound up in the preservation of
the Union.

I know that these views may not be altogether ac-
ceptable. Wholesale denunciation is cheaper and
easier and more popular. But if I should fail to say
this, — if I should seem to denounce as disloyal those,
who have .given their blood or the blood of their chil-
dren for the Union, I should lack the approval of one
voice, without which the applause of the world is
altogether vanity.

I spoke of the duty of hope. I call it a duty. And
to me the schoolboy who plays at putting down Rebel-
lion, and. shouts to his comrades that " we shall beat
the Rebels yet," is a truer patriot, and for this hour a
better statesman than the ablest member of Congress,
who can find no higher use for his talents than to
depress our hopes, and divide our energies, and to
paralyze our counsels.

I do not mean that unreasoning and vainglorious
hope, which looks for overwhelming victory whenever
a brigade changes its position ; and prophesies the
immediate end of Rebellion at every trifling success of
our arms. That false hope, too often followed by
unmanly and unpatriotic despair, has been a curse to
the Nation. I mean that well-grounded confidence

28

ORATION.

founded in the knowledge of our resources and in
the assurance of right, which is among the chief of
our resources ; that abiding hope, which in adversity
and prosperity, through good report and through evil
report, follop's the fortunes of the country, and trusts
in God for its triumph.

I find a motto for patriots in the phrase, which a
brave king gave to the statesmen of . Great Britain, ■
when foreign war and civil dissension threatened the
existence of the nation, and when the people too
readily gave themselves up to unreasonable elevation
and depression of spirits. He wrote to a friend, that
crossing the German Ocean on a stormy night, with a
head wind and a heavy sea, he heard the captain call-
ing out every minute to the helmsman : " Steady,
steady, steady." And he gave this to be the watch-
word of every loyal Englishman, until the day of peril
should pass away. So, it might be our watchword
now, — "Steady." No slacking of effort in the mo-
ment of success ; no dejection in the hour of danger.
" Steady " for the Union and the right. If I could be
heard by him who holds the helm of state, I would say
to him, even, — " Steady. The ship you steer is
freighted with the best hopes of man. The destinies
of generations unborn depend upon you. At last,
the ship is steering for the North Star. Now, steady,
steady, steady."

I find grounds of hope in the devotion with which

ORATION. 29

our people on land and sea, at home and in the field,
have upheld the cause of their country. In gloomy
hours I call to mind the heroic deeds with which the
war has been filled, and I dare not doubt our final
triumph. I think of the Cumberland going down with
her flag flying, her mutilated gunner, firing one more
shot for the honor of the country ; of that other gun-
ner, who shut himself in the magazine of a burning
ship, that he might not add to her danger by trying
to escape ; of the dying General, whose last wish w^as
that he might lie with his face toward the enemy ;
of our heroic Bartlett, whose example shows that no
wounds less than mortal can hold back a patriot from
his country's service, and whose courage stayed the
hand even of Eebel sharpshooters, — a breath of chiv-
alry wafted from the regions of old romance. I re-
member Sergeant Carney at Fort Wagner seizing the
flag as the standai-d-bearer fell ; maimed, crawling on
his hands and knees, but holding it up from contact
with the ground, and saving " the symbol dear." I
call to mind the pilot of the Escort, who, with a
bullet in his brain, steered the boat that bore General
Foster to rescue our beleagured troops, living only to
accomplish his work, with memory, judgment, reason
all gone, living twelve minutes on loyalty alone,
shaming in those minutes how many of our useless
lives. I remember all these noble men and noble
acts and noble deaths, and I cannot believe that God

30 ORATION.

has decreed failure to a cause for which such blood
has been shed.

When I think of the heroism displayed in the field,
of the devotion shown at home, of the men and women
whose live^ have been saved from guilty dissipation,
or from that utter frivolity which is only a hair's
breadth this side of guilty dissipation, redeemed and
consecrated to patriotism, I find some compensation
even for the horrors that have befallen us. I see that
there is life saved as well as life lost, and, joining with
the poet —

" Count it a covenant that He leads- us on
Beneath the cloud and through the crimson sea."

The part which the women of the North have taken
in this contest must not be orhitted, often as it has
been set forth. When, on the twelfth of May, the
glorious Hancock hurled his triumphant columns upon
the panic-stricken ranks of Eebellion, first among the
foremost, and bravest of the brave was our own
" young gallant" Barlow. I say our own, for, although
enlisted in New York, he was born and bred in Mas-
sachusetts ; and bright as her roll of honor is, we
cannot afford to lose one such name as his. Soldiers
who saw that charge have told me that it was like the
bursting of a thunder-cloud; and well I know the
fiery -soul that lent electric force to the falling bolt.
And you will not ask what has this to do with the

ORATION. 31

services of women ; for all America has heard that
when the youthful General lay stretched upon the
field at Gettysburg, pierced by five ghastly wounds,
not thought to be worth the trouble of paroling by his
captors, given up for dead, then his faithful wife' found
him, with just enough of blood left in his veins to
enable him to be nursed into a hero once more, —
stood by him, and would not let him die, but gave
him again to his country. And what she_ did on a
conspicuous stage, a thousand women have done in the
hospital, on the field of battle, in the soldiers' homes,
in ten thousand busy circles of industry, — and thus
woman has given whole regiments to do battle for the
Union.

Nor thus alone have women served their country's
cause. Loving wives have said to their husbands :
" Go, fight for the heritage of our children ; " and
tender mothers have charged their sons : " Make me
proud of you by your death or by your life."

We have heard of the noble woman who said to
her son : '• Take the commission. If you accept the
command of a colored regiment, I shall feel as proud
of you as if you had been shot." He took the com-
mand, and died in glory, leading his brave men to
battle. And the double wreath of pride was woven
for that mother's brow. We have heard of that true-
hearted girl who turned from the fresh grave. of her
brother, and such a brother, to say to the Governor :

32 ORATION.

" We thanked you when you gave our brother a com-
mission. We thank you more to-day." And in all
this devotion to the right vi^e see an omen of victory.

Even in the prodigality which is the tasteless and
accursed fashion of this day there is ground of hope.
I wonder that men and women can enjoy the vulgar
luxury which is the madness of the hour. I wonder
that they can endure it, while their dearest friends
are dying. in the field, and their best hopes are all
endangered. But I see in it proofs of untouched re-
sources, of almost boundless wealth ; and I have faith
that, when danger is imminent, all these resources will
be consecrated to the service of the country.

I find grounds of hope even in the strange atrocities
with which this Rebellion has been stained. I would
do justice to the courage of our enemies. Language
can hardly do justice to their cruelty. As I read of
the captives at Fort Pillow, butchered, burned alive,
then buried so hastily that the hands of the dead ap-
peared on the surface of the earth, which refused to
hide the crime, I thought of those "poor hands" of
which Burke spoke so pathetically, — powerless here,
but mighty when stretched towards the heavens for
justice. We are told that in the Eevolution the mur-
der of one woman by the Indian allies of England,
mourned and condemned by the British General, had
power . to arouse States and to array armies on our
side. It enabled the heroic Stark to turn back the

ORATION. 33

tide of battle, and to prepare for the capture of Bur-
goyne. What then must be the result of these
repeated horrors, not condemned, but justified and
applauded by the Southern press, — accepted as part
of their system of warfare] The slaughter and the
starvation of prisoners are not the weapons of a cause
to which victory has been decreed.

When Grant thunders asainst the walls of Rich-
mond, his batteries will have a strength not shown
by the army returns. Great wrongs, cruel agonies,
gigantic offences will add force to his artillery.

Remember, this is not a solitary instance of Rebel
cruelty. At Milliken's Bend, prisoners of war, taken
in arms for their country, guilty of no crime, except
the color of their skin, were literally crucified upon
the trees of the forest. Ah, it needed not this crime
to remind us that the strongest bond which links
together all nations and races of men is the recollec-
tion that the same great sacrifice was once off'ered
for all.

From those haunted forests, from the blood-stained
enclosure of Fort Pillow, from the dungeons, where
prisoners of war have been starved into imbecility or
death, from a hundred plantations where a little pile
of ashes has been the only memorial of a foul murder,
there has gone an army of martyrs, who stand before
the throne, and cry, "How long,0 Lord, how long?"
Men talk of retaliation. When the record of these

34 ORATION.

outrages has been fully spread before the nations of
Europe, then retaliation is begun. When the patience
of a just God is exhausted, then will the blood of the
fallen be gloriously ayenged.

I spoke of hope. Let us rather* call it faith, —
faith that a Rebellion founded in a denial of human
rights, and sustained by daily wrongs, cannot be des-
tined to prevail. Because we are so thoroughly in the
right, — because the interests of mankind for genera-
tions to come depend upon our success, — because the
hopes and prayers of good men everywhere, the living
and the dead, are with us, — we cannot fail.

When the battle of Lookout Mountain was fought,
the imagination of men was greatly moved when they
learned tha.t the victory of the gallant Hooker was
won literally above the clouds. It is my faith, that
the battle of America, is indeed to be fought and
won far above the clouds. Beyond the circle of the
heavens sits the Sole Giver of Victory, and decrees
triumph to the nation that supports His laws. There-
fore, Ave will not fear for America, whatever may
befall her. If dark days come — if delay still tries
our patience, we will remember the protracted toils
of our fathers, and call to mind the outstretched arm
by which their deliverance was wrought. We need
not go back so far to find omens of good. Eecall
the gloomy days through which we lived, one year
ago, when with heavy hearts we prepared to keep this s

ORATION. 35

anniversary. The invading Kebels stood on our soil.
Their faces were set towards our chief cities. And
some, who had hoped till then, lost all hope. The
heavens seemed deaf to the prayers of loyal men.
Some were adjudged to be impious in their despairing
cries. So passed for us the first of July, the second,
and the third. The fourth of July came, and as we
looked toward Gettysburg the flashes of Meade's artil-
lery —

" Gave proof througt the night
That our flag was still there."

We looked again and it waved over captured Vicks-
burg; and yet a little while, and it streamed from
the ramparts of Port Hudson, where Massachusetts
hands had placed it, and we knew that the dear old
flag was safe. Passing through such a danger, saved
by such a deliverance, he is a coward that doubts
the final triumph of the Union. Whether we win
or lose this campaign, let us hope for that triumph.
Failure, if it comes, will only rekindle the spirit
of our nation. The lust of gold, the madness of lux-
ury and fashion, the strife of party, will give way
to universal patriotism, in the presence of a peril
which we feel. Foreign intervention, if that is threat-
ened, will make of us, more than ever, more than any-
thing, one people. I look for another day of perfect
union, of indignant loyalty, of assured victory.

36 ORATION.

" 'Tis the day, wten the men of the slumbering North
Again for the land of our pride shall come forth,
And speaking stout words, which stout hearts shall maintain,
Proclaim our fair country a Nation again —
The men of the North.

For the tides of the sea are unruffled and slow.
And as calmly and coldly their pulses may flow,
But as soon shall you roll hack that fathomless tide
As turn from their slow-chosen purpose aside
The men of the North."

I cannot believe that the glories of our fathers' days
and of their fathers', the grand voices that sound
from two centuries of civilized life in America, are
but a prelude to the dirge which humanity would
chant over the grave of a ruined nation and a lost
hope. I rather count the sad tidings which too often
grieve our ears, as the mournful notes which will lend
grandeur to that full anthem of praise which shall
burst from the heart of a redeemed nation as they
shout with one accord : " Sing unto the. Lord, for he
hath triumphed gloriously."

O, that the grand old man, who has just gone home
from Earth, could have lived to see that day. You
know how true and brave, how loyal and hopeful
he was to the last moment of his life. Our children's
children will be glad to hear from us, that we knew
a man who ha,d seen Washington, and who was worthy

ORATION. 37

to see him. He who remembered the achievement of
his country's independence, longed to behold her final
triumph. And who doubts that he will see it 1 Em-
ployed, as we ] ove to believe —

" In those great offices, that suit
The full-grown energies of heaven,"

he will look from the skies and feel new joy, even
there, as he sees that right is victorious, and that
the will of God is done in the councils of men.

^mt \\m\(v W\Mi\\.

ORATION

DEI,IVEKED BlCKOr.E THE

CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON,

FOUKTH OF JULV, 1865,

J. M. MANNING.

TOGliTHKll WITH

AN ACCOUNT OF THE MUNICIPAL CELEBRATION OF THE EICIITV-NINTH ANNIVERSARY

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

BOSTON:
J. E. FARWELL & COMPANY, PRINTERS,

No. .'J 7 CUNOKICaS SXItMliT.

1 8 (J 5 .

CITY OF BOSTON.

Jm Common Council, July 6, 1865.
Ordered : That the thanks of the City Council be pre-
sented to the Rev. Jacob M. Manning for the highly eloquent
and patriotic Oration delivered by him before the Municipal
authorities on the celebration of the Declaration of American
Independence, July 4, 1865, and that he be requested to
furnish a copy for publication.
Sent up for concurrence.

WM. B. FOWLE, F resident.

Ill Board of Aldermen, July 10, 1865.
Concurred.

G. W. MESSINGER, Chairman.

Approved July 11, 1865.

F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Mayor.

A true copy. Attest :

S. F. McCLEARY, City Clerk.

OR ATIOIS"

Heretofore on occasion of our National Anniversary
the speakers summoned to address you have sometimes
pressed on your hearing ideas and sentiments respect-
ing which you earnestly differed from them and one
another. And hereafter, should the exigencies of the
country at any time require, Boston cannot lack
courageous men, instant in season, who will speak
the unwelcome truths which she ought to hear. But
the task of to-day, though perhaps not less difficult,
is more agreeable. The duty you have imposed upon
me, if I rightly apprehend it, is to aid in giving utter-
ance to the feeling which now fills all our hearts.
In saying this, I assume that the feeling itself is right ;
a patriotic joy, exultant with the ecstasies and tender
over the agonies of successful war, — a joy full of
gratitude for the deliverance already vouchsafed, and
causing us to renew our solemn vow that no promise
to man, contained in the Declaration of Independence,
shall be left unfulfilled.

. b PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

It has been said of John Adams, that upon the pas-
sage of the Eesolution of Independence, July 2, 1776,
his mind " heaved like the ocean after a storm."
Thus does a nation's heart heave to-day. The voice
of its thanksgiving is as the voice of many waters.
A mystic chord, stretched from our one heart
across the intervening years, vibrates responsively to
the words of "the colossus in that debate." Our joy
seeks the lofty utterance in which he exclaimed, " the
day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be the
most memorable epocha in the history of America ;
to be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great
Anniversary Festival, commemoi'ated as the day of
deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God
Almighty, from one end of the continent to the
other, from this time forward, forevermore." He
adds, " You will think me transported with en-
thusiasm, but I am not." " Through all the gloom,
I can see the rays of light and glory." " You and
I may rue," but " posterity will triumph."

"Posterity will triumph." Yes, we stand in the
dawn of the day whose glory was foreseen by the
Fathers. Now is fulfilled the word which was then
spoken. We are the citizens of an independent and
regenerated country. We breathe an atmosphere
which is invigorating to liberty. Plymouth Kock, so
long refused of the builders, has become the corner-

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. /

stone of the republic. To-day we nationalize the
prayer for Massachusetts, devoutly saying, " God save
the United States of America ! " The ark, to which
we committed our liberties when the tlood of Rebellion
came, and from which the dove was sent forth again
and again only to return each time with the olive branch
in her mouth, now rests upon the summits of victory.
And on this most auspicious birthday of the nation, we
are going forth from ■ that ark to build our altar, and
to look on the bow in the clouds, which tells us that
war shall no more deluge our land.

Has it been befitting, hitherto, that we should cele-
brate the anniversary of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence 1 Then it is doubly befitting that we should do
so from this time forth. To those who have rebelled
and been defeated, we do not presume that this pro-
priety will appear. Nor are we anxious to succeed in
meeting their views of the fitness of things. Four
years ago they intimated that we were not prosperous
enough ; and to-day, forsooth, we are too prosperous to
keep the feast. Then they ridiculed the solemnity of
which they are now disposed to complain. But loyalty
does not choose treason for her teacher when she goes
to school. As we were hopeful in the day of adversity,
so will we be grateful in the day of triumph. We did
not omit our feast when Freedom was threatened.

8 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

nor will we now that Slavery is overthrown. Yet we
indulge in no ungenerous exultation. We rejoice not
at the discomfiture of our enemies, but in the Salvation
of the Eepublic. We dreaded war with them, knowing
that our own blood flowed in their veins. We clung
to the common traditions and glory of the past. We
were charitable and forbearing almost to the verge of
recreancy. And that patience and long suffering are
to-day our Vantage-ground. We are sure that no
malignity mingles with our joy ; but only a just indig-
nation, not untinged with pity and grief. We rejoice
not that half a continent is laid waste or covered with
mourning, but that liberty has taken another step for-
'^ard in the world. Whatever of tenderness there
iuay be in our hearts, if we were silent in view of
what God has wrought, the very stones would cry
out.

It has been said by one of our English critics, that
we violated the spirit of this festival, when we under-
took to put down the Eebellion by force of arms.
" Henceforth," was his language, " the observance of
the Fourth of July is an unmeaning ceremony." But
that conclusion was reached from an inadequate prem-
ise. The critic seemed to see only half of what the
Declaration of Independence proclaims. Let no one
be misled by the name of that immortal paper. Besides
the right of revolution, to which the name especially

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 9

points, the paper itself declares that there is an
inalienable right of liberty, which belongs equally to
all men. But allowing our critic his premise, what
was that right of revolution declared by the Fathers 1
Was it something that would legitimate the Southern
Eebellion 1 Was it a principle which we violated in
putting down that Eebellion by force 1 The Fathers
of the Republic did not believe in wantonly breaking
up any form of government. The oppression must be
intolerable and morally wrong, and revolt the only
available means of redress, in order to justify such a
course. Had the national rule become wicked and in-
tolerably oppressive to the South'?

Imagine the conspirators at Montgomery saying that
" a decent respect to the opinions of mankind required
that they should declare the causes which impelled
them to the separation." What were those causes,
when fairly stated 1 A golden passage in the
first draft of the Declaration had been dropped to
please the Southern delegates. At the framing of the
Constitution that noble charter was again compromised
to bring South Carolina into the Union. Concession
after concession was made to the Slave States, and
they seized one centre after another of the Federal
power. They wielded the Government of the country ;
and gradually published their design to make it the
bulwark and propagandist of barbarism. Would such

10 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

a statement as this show " a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind 1" .Do we see here any warrant
for using that carefully defined Eight of Revolution
which the Fathers claimed 1 TSFo, they dared not make
an honest appeal to history. Their hotter nature told
them that they could give only the most monstrous of
reasons for what they did. Hence the fictions of State
Sovereignty and the Eight of Secession, by which they
sought to escape. The war under Abraham Lincoln
hostile to the Declaration of Independence 1 It was
reluctantly accepted to rescue that Declaration from the
spoiler. Had we failed to crush the Eebellion, and
had foreign powers stooped to the infamy of a full
recognition ; had we lost everything else, still we should
not have lost our fidelity to those rights which the
Fathers of the Eepublic held sacred.

But this is not all. So far from having fallen back,
we stand higher to-day than on any previous birthday
of the nation. Did the first war with England establish
the Eight of Eevolution ] The war for the Union has
not yielded that right, but saved it from an infamous
abuse. And our time-hallowed festival, while retaining
all its earlier meaning, is to-day vastly more significant
than ever before. We should feel that we have met
to inaugurate a new jubilee of freedom. Those voices
of the Declaration which proclaim liberty and equality
are no longer mufiled. They peal forth clearly in

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 11

every note of joy, and they fall only upon willing ears.
To-day, for the first time, the mighty chorus is entire.
Our feast is kept not merely in the oldness of the
letter, but in the newness of the spirit. As we are
amending the Constitution, so I could wish that we
might amend the Declaration, by restoriag to it those
words which were blotted at the demand of Slavery.
" He has waged cruel war against human nature itself,
violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in
the persons of a distant people who never offended
him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in
their transportation thither. This piratical warfare,
the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of
the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to
keep open a market where MEN should be bought and
sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing
every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain
this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage
of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he
is now exciting these very people to rise in arms among
us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has de-
prived them, by murdering the people upon whom he
has obtruded them ; thus paying off former crimes
committed against the liberties of one people with
crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives
of another." That is what Jefferson said when he

12 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY,

would show " a decent respect to the opinions of man-
kind," by stating the causes which, impelled the colonies
to declare their independence. For more than fourscore
years that passage has lain rusting, like a sword in its
scabbard. But the malign Power which doomed it to
such ignominy has been overthrown. We draw it
forth to-day, amid the new glory which has risen upon
us. We brandish aloft its reburnished blade, that it
may flash across the sea the double record, — who it
was that planted, and who that has uprooted the insti-
tution of American slavery.

Standing upon the higher summits of the Declara-
tion, as we now do, it is natural for us to review the
path by which we have ascended. Homer, carefully
enumerates, in the Second Book of the Iliad, the ships
which bore the Greeks to the Trojan war. And it
would be a serious neglect on this anniversary, did I
fail to name some of the more important events which
have brought us to our present position. The rush
of events since the opening of the last Spring has
indeed been overwhelming. We seem to be looking
over the awful brow of Niagara ; and the voice of the
cataract is the only voice that can utter our emotions.
But let us go back from the downfall to the source
of the mighty current, and follow it forward.

The Kebellion had its fountains far away in our

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 13

history. The little rills began to flow into each other
after the Colonial period, and the large streams thus
formed became more and more visible as the question
of admitting new States was forced upon the country.
At length all these streams of disloyalty were gath-
ered into a single basin; and then it was that we
beheld the Lake Superior of treason, spreading itself
broadly out in the full daylight, and kissing the bended
cheek of England on its farther shore. That was the
inland sea, around which we went shuddering through-
out the year 1861, vainly expostulating with those who
would trust their all to its waters. Before the year
had dawned, a weak old man, soon to vacate the high
ofiice which he had allowed treason to control, told
us, in words that would have appalled our hearts had
we been base enough to believe them, that the Re-
bellion was wrong, and that any forcible resistance of
it would also be very wrong. There was nothing to
do but stand, through a hundred terrible days, bowed
in shame and chafing with a just rage, until the mighty
Northwest should reach out its long arm and haul up
our starry flag to the height from which it had fallen.
That long arm never failed us, and it left the proud
symbol floating securely when it vanished suddenly
out of sight. But how furious the storm in which
the banner went up, and by which it was instantly
assailed] The sea of Eebellion, changed to a foam-

14 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

ing whirlpool after the first thunderclap at Charles-
ton, swept into its broad circle State after State,
senators, judges, churches, a large portion of the Army
and Navy, and so much of the public property as
could be placed in its way. When our Congress met,
on the 4th of July, the usurpation had an army with
full ranks, superbly officered, well supplied and drilled,
and every branch of its affairs, whether at home or
abroad, was in able and experienced hands. Before
the first leaves of Autumn fell, we had lost EUsworth,

— the rising star of our volunteer soldiery ; Senator
Douglas, — from whose position and known loyalty much
was expected ; Winthrop and Greble, — one a child
of genius, the other a true son of Mars ; and General
Lyon, who, more than any other loyal officer up to that
time, had shown the qualities of a great commander.
The humiliating battle of Bull Run had been fought,

— revealing disloyalty in high places, exposing our
ignorance of the art of war, uncovering the approaches
to the Capital, and sending a thrill of anguish and
terror throughout the land. Later in the season came
the surrender of Lexington, — opening Missouri to the
foot of the invader ; the battle of Ball's Bluff, — costing
us the lamented Baker, whose great popularity bound
the Pacific to the Atlantic coast as with hooks of steel,
and quenching the light in many New England homes;
and, toward the going out of the year, came the irreg-

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 15

Tilar capture of Mason and Slidell, and the advice ot
the Earl of Derby to the British Government, " that
outward-bound ships should signalize English vessels
that war with America was probable." The attitude
of the Border States had paralyzed the Administra-
tion, and divided the sentiment of the North ; Congress
could do little more than save itself from falling a prey
to treason ; feelings of humanity compelled the Presi-
dent to recognize " the Confederacy," so far as to
treat with it for exchange of prisoners ; belligerent
rights, and the moral power of sympathy had already
been secured to it from the leading foreign powers,
Eussia, " faithful among the faithless," excepted ; and
pirates were roaming over the high seas, commissioned
by the arch-conspirator Davis, " to sink, burn, and
destroy everything which flew the ensign of the so-
called United States of America/'

But this carnival-year of treason was not without its
signs of promise to us. The telegram of Secretary
Dix to the special agent in New Orleans, " if any one
attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him
on the spot;" the heroism of Anderson and his de-
voted comrades ; the sublime response to the first call
for troops, Massachusetts, as of old, leading the van ;
the elastic energy of the nation under the stunning
blow of Bull Run ; the battle of Rich Mountain, sav-
ing to us Western Virginia ; the capture of the forts

16 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

at Hatteras Inlet, under Admiral Stringham and Gen-
eral Butler ; the glorious achievement of the Navy at
Port Royal, under the lamented Dupont ; the stubborn
and bloody fight near Belmont, where General Grant
first gave token of that daring, coolness, modesty, stra-
tegy, and invincible nerve, which have since won him
our eternal gratitude ; the moral courage and wisdom
of Mr. Seward, in appeasing the wrath of England
over the afi"air of the " Trent ; " these events were all
unmistakable omens that the triumphing of the wicked
would be short.

The huge volume of the Eebellion, thus sensibly
diminished, now shrunk at a rapid rate. The new year
(1862) gave Mason and Slidell to England, by whom
they were " coldly received ; " Edwin M. Stanton, the
Cato among our heads of departments, became Secre-
tary of War ; the battle of Mill Spring settled the issue
in the Border States ; the capture of Forts Henry and
Donelson, and of Roanoke Island, brought the nation
to its feet in a frenzy of delight ; Pea Eidge followed,
crushing the Rebel cause in Missouri ; then came the
Providential exploit of the first Monitor, swiftly aveng-
ing the loss of the " Congress " and " Cumberland,"
and opening a new era in the history of naval warfare.
On the heels of these victories treads that at Newbern,
confirming our supremacy in Eastern North Carolina ;
that at Winchester, where " Stonewall " Jackson was

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 17

defeated and driven back ; and the terrific stru2-2-le of
Pittsburg Landing, where unflinching determination
again prevailed, chiefly through General Sherman, —
" his martial features terrible," then, as ever, the Tela-
monian Ajax of the war. We were puzzled, rather
than made anxious, when we knew that Lee had evac-
uated Manassas; soon the coasts of Georgia and
Florida were ours ; General Pope and Commodores
Foote and Davis, had opened the Mississippi far down-
wards ; and when New Orleans had surrendered to
Farragut, who found the people there so insolent that
he turned them over to General Butler, in that glad
hour it seemed to us that we could already discern
the angel of peace, his feet beautiful upon the moun-
tains, bringing good tidings, and saying unto us, " Your
God reigneth."

Our God did reign. And because He loved us, He
did not suffer us at that time to triumph. Again the
Rebellion began to unfold its narrowed volume. All
eyes were now fixed upon the Army of the Potomac, —
noblest Army the world has ever seen, — grand at last
with the splendors of victory, as it was grand at first
in the gloom of disaster. Wasted in its slow advance,
after the barren successes at Yorktown and Williams-
burg, it lay, the victim of an invisible destroyer, along
the muddy slopes of the Chickahominy. General
Banks, assailed by the combined forces of Jackson

18 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

and Ewell, had skilfully withdrawn his little army
from the Valley of the Shenandoah. It was deter-
mined that the force under McDowell should cover
Washington, and not the right wing of the Army of
the Potomac. Jackson was thus at liberty to co-operate
with Lee against McClellan, whose plan for falling
back had been discovered by Stuart's famous raid, and
whose difficulties had been increased rather than less-
ened, by the costly victories of Fair Oaks and Mechan-
icsville. The first attempt at withdrawal was the signal
for furious pursuit. But our brave columns, though
vastly outnumbered, were not once beaten in the field.
Their march was not a retreat in the proper sense of
the term ; and each time they turned upon the pur-
suing legions of the foe, at Gaines's Mills, the Chicka-
hominy. Peach Orchard and Savage's Station, White
Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill, they sent those legions,
mangled and disheartened, backward. It was not in
the fighting, but through divided counsels, that the
campaign proved a failure. The Army still supposed
itself on the way to Eichmond, when the order came
for it to move toward Washington. Then it was that
the Rebellion rolled out its hidden masses. At Cedar
Mountain it struck a blow that darkened many homes
in New England; and this was but the opening of
the series of assaults which culminated in the second
battle of Bull Eun, and which swept on until met by

PEA.CE UNDER LIBERTY. 19

an impassable barrier at South Mountain and Antie-
tam. Nor did the sweep of the Rebellion seem to
grow less, but only more vast, at the great battles of
Fredericksburg, Murfreesboro,' and Chancellorsville.
The elections in the North had been carried against
the loyal cause, the assassination of Senator Sumner
had been threatened in New York, and the Congress
at Eichmond had proposed an alliance with the States
on the Pacific coast.

But our God was reigning. The school of calamity
had opened our eyes to see those four millions of
blacks, who everywhere had a welcome for us, and
whose forced labors enabled the Rebels to keep their
armies in the field. Our Congress, whose achieve-
ments for freedom we cannot too much admire, had
smoothed the way for the President. With Slavery
abolished in the District, and forever shut out from
the Territories ; with Hayti fully recognized, the
Fugitive Slave Law repealed, and the Confisca-
tion Act passed, it was easy for Abraham Lincoln,
pressed on by military necessity, to issue that decree
of Emancipation which made him the saviour of his
country, and of a race of men. Thoughts of foreign
interference were now at an end ; and Heaven, though
trying our faith for a time, at length began to smile.
The enlistment of the blacks as soldiers rapidly fol-
lowed ; and to our own Governor Andrew especially is

20 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY,

due the high honor of urging that measure forward to
complete success. On the fourth of July, 1863, the Re-
bellion had received its death wound. Vicksburg fell,
involving the fall of Port Hudson, and thus opening the
Mississippi; and victory settled on our banners at
Gettysburg, after a contest which history, as I think,
will pronounce the great and decisive battle of the
war.

I need not speak of the brave men who there fought.
The classic genius of Everett, now immortal, has em-
balmed their names ; and the matchless Eulogy of the
Martyr-President, has left nothing for eloquence or
poetry to add. Now, upon the failure of the July
riots, the Pebellion withdrew into its inmost recesses,
knowing that its life depended on keeping out of the
way. The battle of Fort Wagner, costing us so dear ;
and that at Chickamauga, revealing the great com-
mander in General Thomas ; and others of less note, in
the South and West, did not change the fixed course of
events. Grant and Sherman, in their own close coun-
sels, were forecasting the final campaign. General
Burnside opened the gates of East Tennessee. The
battle of Mission Eidge, and the storming of Lookout
Mountain, where' Hooker's warriors seemed to wield
the artillery of the clouds, secured an open door into
Georgia. Deeply pained, but unhindered, by the dis-
aster on Eed River, the new regiments rallied on the

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 21

banks of the Rapidan under the Lieutenant-General,
and near Chattanooga under his great subordinate. The
Eebels were confused and bewildered in their hiding-
places, not knowing what the omens foretokened.
They comprehended the game only when they had
lost it. The movement of Meade's army to the South
of Petersburg, so costly but so necessary, and involving
such immense sacrifice of life at Spottsylvania, the
Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Coal Harbor, and on the
banks of James Eiver, closed the iron hand of fate
upon the main army of the Rebellion. It was now
dangerous for that army to remain stationary, and far
more dangerous for it to attempt to move. The defeat
of Sigel and Hunter, and the raids near Washington,
could not loosen the stubborn hold of Grant. The
failure of the assault planned by Burnside, and the
pause of Sherman before Atlanta, sent the currency
and the heart of the country down to their lowest point
notwithstanding the glorious news from the " Kear-
sarge," and the anxiety of the Rebels to treat for peace.
But had certain politicians at that time read the pur-
pose of the leading generals, they would not have
advised the two wings of the Republican party to drop
their separate candidates and unite under some com-
mon leader ; nor would certain other politicians have
voted the war a failure, and clamored for an armistice
and a compromise- The grasp upon the throat of the

22 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

Rebellion was not relaxed ; Sherman resumed his work
upon its extremities, hurling the fragments westward
to be completely crushed by Thomas at Franklin and
Nashville ; the bright pennant of Farragut floated vic-
toriously off the harbor of Mobile ; and Sheridan's ride
in the Valley sealed the fate of the writhing victim.
Every life sacrificed by the Southern leaders after that
date was a murder. They knew their cause to be
hopeless ; only their desperate pride sustained them.
Victory carried the national election. The fall of
Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and Goldsboro'
was but the effect of a cause that had already operated.
They went down like oaks in the still night after the
hurricane has swept over them ! The mad blows at
Hatcher's Run and Fort Stedman, which recoiled
so terribly ; the quailing before Sheridan's swift squad-
rons, all the way round from Lynchburg to Five Forks,
the utter collapse, when the final word was given, " up
boys, and at them," were an overthrow too awful for
my poor description. I can but recur to the figure
with which I began this recital. The long gathering,
the now unfolding and now contracting waters, were
forced to the precipice. In the mists rising out of the
abyss into which they went thundering down, we saw
calmly shining the bright bow of promise ; and our
awed and swelling hearts could only exclaim, " The
Lord God omnipotent reigneth."

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 23

How shall I fitly impress you with the grandeur of
this result to our country 1 Let us first contrast the
opening with the close of the Eebellion. Never before
did treason start up so pompously, and perish so in-
gloriously. At the secession of South Carolina, Mr.
Keitt said : " We have carried the body of this Union
to its last resting-place, and now we will drop the flag
over its grave." But he is in a traitor's gory grave,
and the flag still waves on high. When the conspira-
tors met at Montgomery, Davis said, " the South is
determined to maintain her position, and make all who
oppose her, smell Southern powder, and feel Southern
steel." But that steel and powder are ours to-day, and
Davis — quantus mutatus ah illo — smells a gibbet in
the air. Mr. Stephens said, " in the conflict, thus far,
success has been on our side, complete throughout the
length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is
upon [the enslavement of the African race] as I have
stated, our social fabric is firmly planted ; and I cannot
permit myself to doubt the ultimate success and full
recognition of this principle throughout the civilized
and enlightened world." But the only response to
that atrocious sentiment, thus far, has been a universal
cry of indignation ; and Mr. Stephens now has other
use for his philosophy, in a fortress whose name (Fort
Warren) reminds him of the revered martyr to liberty
on Bunker Hill. After the outrage on Fort Sumter,

24 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

the Eebel Secretary of War said, " I will prophesy that
the flag which now flannts the breeze here will float over
the dorae of the Capitol at Washington before the first
of May. Let them try Southern chivalry and test the
extent of Southern resources, and it may float event-
ually over Faneuil Hall itself." The Governor of
South Carolina also said, " we have humbled the flag
of the United States. It is the first time in the history
of this country that the Stars and Stripes have been
humbled. It has been humbled, and humbled by the
glorious little State of South Carolina." But the flag
then " humbled" is exalted at length, and those who
rolled the sacrilege as a " sweet morsel " under their
tongues, are vagabonds and fugitives in the earth.
The fate of all the leaders in the Eebellion gives a new
meaning to the words of a king of Israel ; " Let not
him that gkdeth on his harness boast himself as he
that putteth it off." Not only did they sell their birth-
right, but that which they most feared has come upon
them. We recall here the terrible lines of Addison,
and, slightly changing them, exclaim : —

" There is some chosen curse,
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven,
Bed with uncommon wrath, to blast the wretch
"Who seeks his greatness in his country's ruin."

The Eebellion begins and ends its career on a stage

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 25

where tragedy and comedy struggle together for the
mastery. In its final shout, " Sic semper tyrannis," we
hear its own doom pronounced ; and it goes out of his-
tory, as the body of the assassin has gone, into the
blackness of darkness forever. Around it hangs the
memory of its great swelling words ; of sacrilege to the
bones of the dead ; of Fort Pillow massacres, St. Albans
raids, yellow-fever plots, and attempts to burn cities
full of women and children. A host of skeleton shadows
from Libby, Saulisbury, and Andersonville flit above
the place of its torment. It forever hears the horror
and laughter of the world shouted after it. And if
there be any words, in all the circle of literature,
which it may fitly utter, they are : " Let the day perish
wherein I was born ! Let it not be joined unto the
days of the year, nor come into the number of the
months ! Let no joyful voice come therein. Let
them curse it that curse the day ; let the stars of the
twilight thereof be dark."

Respecting tbe change that has come over the aris-
tocracy of England, I will be very brief They are
eating their own words at a rapid rate ; and the wry
faces which they make, while " chewing the bitter
cud," are our ample revenge. If they can afford to
remember the indecent haste with which they listened
to the conspirators ; with which they threatened war
over the affair of the " Trent ; " with which they vir-

4

26 PEACE UNDER LIBERTT.

tually became allies of the Eebellion ; we certainly can.
Our disgust is stirred not a little at their eulogy of our
Martyr-President, whom a short time before they had
so insultingly maligned ; but if they can afford to
extend such sympathy, we may well keep silent, and
gratefully — smile. Lee and Johnston, and Forrest,
and Taylor, and Kirby Smith, having surrendered, of
course the surrender of England follows. Like a cer-
tain Confederate General, she " surrenders uncon-
ditionally on condition that she is unconditionally
pardoned." The bills are rather large after that little
pleasantry of the " Alabama." Our portly friend pro-
tests that he didn't steal the butter and put it in his
hat ; and therefore, though something very much like
butter is streaming down his glowing cheeks, yet, if he
sai/s he didn't, possibly he didn't. We mean that our
memory shall be as short as England's ; that is, we will
forget the hostility of the titled few, and remember the
sympathy of the untitled many among her subjects.

As for France and Mexico, we cannot forget the
exposed heel of Achilles ; and we shall take care that
no Paris, with poisoned arrow, wounds us to death on
our Southwestern border.

It might be thought ungenerous to contrast our
present feelings with those of the vanquished ; let us
therefore remember how we felt at the outbreak of
the Rebellion, and from the contrast thus suggested

PEACE UNDEK LIBERTY. 27

learn the greatness of our cause for rejoicing. We
shall never forget that Saturday on which Sumter
fell, nor the Sunday next following. Least of all
shall we ever forget the Sunday next following the
massacre of our loyal soldiers in Baltimore. Sabbaths
v^e cannot call those days, for they brought no rest to
us. We were astounded, bewildered, appalled. We
went unto the house of God, only to calm ourselves
there under His great shadow, as we looked forth on
the gathering tempest of war. Then we gazed down
a horrible vista of devastation, famine, tears, blood,
and wild disorder. We looked, " And behold a pale
horse ; and his' name that sat on him was Death, and
Hell followed with him." We saw the iron-hoofed
demon of war, — his neck clothed with thunder, pawing
in the valleys, displaying the glory of his nostrils,
swallowing the ground with fierceness and rage, saying
among the trumpets, " Ha, ha ! " smelling the battle, the
thunder of the captains, and the shouting ; we saw this
mighty waster going forth to trample down all our beau-
tiful civilization, to fill every house in the land with
mourning, to turn the moon into blood, and cast the stars
unto the ground like untimely figs. But lo, the vision is
changed ! Another angel has sounded, even the angel
of peace. We look up, and, behold, all the stars are
in their places. Their bands have not been loosed nor
their sweet influence disowned.

28 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

" The terrible steed lies with nostril all wide,
And through it there rolls not the breath of his pride."

Yes, the gloom and horror are behind us, and the
glory before. We lay aside the spirit of heaviness,
and put on the bright apparel of joy. For He that
now cometh — escorted by our returning conquerors —
is meek and lowly. His coming is as showers upon
the mown grass. We see waste places rejoicing at
His approach, the wilderness budding and blossoming,
the rose growing again in Sharon, the lily reappear-
ing in the valley, the hills clothed with flocks and
corn and the free floods clapping their hands. Up,
come ye, let us spread our garments in the way ; let
us cut down branches, and strew them before this
King of Peace ! Let us go before, and follow after,
and sing, " Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors."
Let the children, also, with their glad hosannas, swell
our chorus of welcome. For Peace cometh, crowned
with war's victories, to sway a benign sceptre over the
land.

Only a little more than four years ago we were
bringing home, from the bloody pavement in Balti-
more, our young soldiers, slain for rushing between the
raised dagger of treason and the nation's life. Sorrow-
ful indeed was that funeral; for the air was thick
with startling omens, and the tidings, coming on every
pulse of the electric wires, smote us like the sirocco's

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 29

breath. But to-day the grave of those martyrs is holy
ground. You have recently made a pilgrimage to
their sculptured monument, going with songs of joy,
and with garlands in your hands, to tell to a thousand
generations that Liberty does not forget, in the day of
her triumph, those "who made their lives an offer-
ing" for her sake. A little more than four years
ago all our hearts were on board the " Star of the
West," sailing into Charleston harbor, carrying food
to a little band of starving men ; only to be warned
back by a hostile shot, and to be forced to look on, in
powerless indignation and shame, while the encircling
batteries of treason vomited forth their inhuman fury
upon that small and fainting company ; until the stars
of our nationality went down, insulted but not dis-
honored, into the smoke and flames of fratricidal war.
But lo, the change ! A rod out of heaven has touched
and transfigured the scene. Since the magnolias last
bloomed, all our hearts have been on board another
ship, bearing upon it some of the scarred veterans of
freedom, and with them the heroic Anderson, who
carried with him the same starry Symbol that first
went down. This they lifted up to its former proud
height, amid shoutings, the sobbings of joy, jubilant
music, and thunders of loyal cannon. And thus was
proclaimed, to all traitors, and the enemies of liberty
everywhere, that the covenant which makes these

30 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

States a nation is an everlasting bond ; and that their
Union — by the sweet ministries of peace, if possible,
but, if necessary, by the thunderbolts of war — "must
and shall be preserved." No vain boasting, no empty
exultation, no vulgar triumph over the vanquished,
but a solemn admonition to us and our children, and to
all the world, that " whosoever falleth on this rock
shall be broken, and on whomsoever it falleth it shall
grind him to powder ! "

But I proceed to some of the more lasting results
of the war. Of its effect as realizing the spirit of
the Declaration I have already spoken.

The triumph of our loyal arms has settled the ques-
tion of sovereignty, as between the Union and the
several States. It was said of the States of ancient
Greece, that they lost their government by desiring
severally to govern: Grecice civitates, dum imperare
singulcB cupiunt, imperium omnes perdiderunt. A similar
fate threatened the American Eepublic, growing out of
the heresy of State Sovereignty. But the war is at an
end, and where are those Sovereign States ] Do they
appear, to negotiate a peace with the Federal Gov-
ernment 1 No; they cannot shield the assailants of
the Union and Constitution. Those assailants find;
as Eoman traitors once found, that " they must answer
at the bar of the assembly as criminals, not pretend to

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 31

negotiate with the Eepublic as equals." The States
are but municipalities ; in the government of the whole
country is vested the sovereign power. We have heard
of treason against a State ; but we now see that such
a crime is always relative to the Union. No State,
acting primarily and independently, defines the crirae
of treason and prescribes its penalty ; it exercises that
function only by virtue of its connection with the
United States. Eobert E. Lee, fancying the authority
of Virginia paramount to that of the Republic, became
a traitor ; Andrew Johnson, true to his primary rather
than his secondary allegiance, maintained his loyalty.
" But if the question of sovereignty was not settled
before the war, and if Lee honestly believed Virginia to
be sovereign, ought he to suffer the penalty of trea-
son 1 " Certainly not for that simple belief. But he
went further. He did that which he had often seen
defined as treason in the Constitution of his country.
Let no one be punished for believing the abstract
doctrine of State Sovereignty ; but let those who have
made war upon the United States, and the whole
country through them, be taught the horrible nature
of their crime. Treason, as we now perceive, is not
properly an offence against Massachusetts, or Virginia ;
not the killing of a public servant, however high his
office ; but an attempt to murder the sovereignty of the
people of the United States. No other crime can

32 PEACE UNDER LIBEE.TT.

compare with it in guilt. It is not merely hurling a
single planet from its sphere, but destroying the power
of gravitation itself. Thank God, the thin pretext,
from which so many have leaped into bloody Rebellion,
is no more ! Like the gourd of Jonah, it has perished
with the night in which it grew up. All the people of
the land know now, that in case of collision between
civil authorities, they owe a single paramount allegi-
ance ; and that they owe it to the Government whose
organic law defines high treason, and declares that
Congress shall determine its penalty.

The triumphant issue of the war has proved the
power of an elective government to cope with armed
Rebellion. Heretofore, the advocates of hereditary
power have said, " Your government by the people,
vsdth universal suffrage and a change of rulers every
four years, may do very well on a small scale, and
while you are held together by the necessity of making
common cause against other nations. But wait till
you have a broad territory, and many competing in-
terests among your citizens : and then, in case of any
considerable revolt, see how soon your country will go
to pieces. Your Government, resting as it does on the
shoulders of the masses, will have for its chief man-
agers men of inferior ability ; the brief tenure of office
will not train great leaders ; your ablest men, seeing
themselves but units in the mass, will lack patriotism ;

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 33

in any threatening emergency, your nation will find
itself unprepared." This reasoning was so plausible,
and in part so philosophical, that some of us half
believed it. Our hearts misgave us when we knew
that certain of the States were banded together to
destroy our Government. There did seem to be a want
of patriotism among our ablest men ; there was a lack
of trained leaders ; we were wofully unready to cope
with the Rebellion. But one element in our favor, out-
weighing all the advantages of a monarchy, had been
too much overlooked. The people knew that the
Government was their government, and its cause their
cause. If it was dishonored, they were dishonored ; if
it was lost, their earthly hopes were lost. No sophist-
ries could blind them to the momentous issue. Hence
the rush to arms. Hence the cheerful submission to
taxes, and other necessary burdens and restraints.
Hence the readiness to loan the nation whatever trea-
sure it might need. Our first efforts were awkward
and unsuccessful; and, of those whom we tried as
leaders, one after another failed. But the resources
were vast; the determination to conquer grew more
stern; gradually we learned how; and those who
wished us evil, and our own doubting hearts, were
taught that what a free people wills it can perform.
We have shown that the humblest man, if honest, can
be the successful ruler of the mightiest nation on the

34 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

globe. The people are too intelligent, too much dis-
posed to justice and public order, to need intellectual
giants in the chairs of state. The wolf, and the bear,
and the lion have been subdued to the habits of the
lamb and the ox ; " and a little child may lead them."
The spirit of the people has made our rulers great.
All fears respecting the stability of such a government
as ours are forever dispelled. There is, in the nation,
a centripetal power balancing its centrifugal power;
it may be as permanent as it is beneficent, as strong as
it is free. Hitherto our Kepublic has been called an
experiment ; it will be called so no longer. Royalists
know this. They see that the weapon with which
they have thus far defended their kings is wrested
from them. They are asking themselves, with blanched
cheeks, what they have done and said to us in the day
of our trouble.

Let me here give way a moment to the mouth-piece
of the English aristocracy. Hear it : " It has been
vulgarly supposed that democracy is necessarily
incompatible with strength and vigor of executive
action, and that the concentration of power in a single
despot is necessary for the conduct of a great war.
That delusion the American struggle has dispelled.
It has been thought that democracies were necessarily
fickle to their rulers, unstable and wavering in their
determination. That, too, the democracy of America

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 35

has disproved. It has been said that democracies were
necessarily violent and cruel in their disposition, and
that from impatience of discipline and obedience they
are unapt for military success. No man can say that
now. It has been said that democracies would not
support the expenses of war and the burdens of taxa-
tion. This is proved not to be the case. No autocrat
that the world has ever seen, has received a more firm
and unbounded support, and commanded more unlim-
ited resources than those which the American people
have freely placed at the disposal of Mr. Lincoln.
His re-election in 1864 was evidence of the wise and
prudent firmness of the people who exercised the
suffrage, and the result ought to have left no doubt on
the minds of thoughtful men as to the necessary issue
of the great contest." Comment is needless. To such
language every American patriot says, as the friend of
Antonio said to Shylock —

" I thank thee, Jew, for giving me that word! "

The war has also proved that we are in no danger
from military ambition. The soldiers of Caesar and
Napoleon were ready to follow their adored command-
ers ia any attempt at usurpation. Not so our soldiers.
They know what they have been suffering and fighting
for; for a Government which belongs to themselves,
and which not even their most admired general, for

36 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

whom they would die any moment, can be permitted in
the smallest particular to usurp or disown. Thank
God, the American people are able to discriminate in
their gratitude. No renown of the warrior can so daz-
zle them as to make them forget the proper subordina-
tion of the military to the civil power. Henceforth
we shall be less nervous at popular admiration lavished

on the successful general. It is not the blind applause
of an unthinking populace, but thanks rendered to one

who is expected to be a benefactor in the future as
well as in the past. We are deeply grieved that it has
cost the hero of Atlanta so dear, or that any other
hero's tripping should be the price of this valuable
lesson ; and we are and always will be grateful to the
man who could say to his troops, as Sherman did, in
bidding them adieu after all that had happened, " be
good citizens in peace as you have been good soldiers
ia war."

Another result of the struggle has been to strengthen,
rather than shake, the foundation of our liberties. The
essential theory of the Government is not changed, but
confirmed and made to operate on a larger scale. It
is an axiom of history that civil wars are ended only
by compromise. That axiom has failed for once. The
rebellions of England have revolutionized her govern-
ment, though nominally it is much the same. When
kings come out of wars with their subjects, they never

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 37

after sit as firmly as before on their thrones. They
must humor the people, and yield more or less of the
reality for the sake of the semblance of power. But
our Government has not yielded anything to the Rebels
yet, and will be guilty of a foolish act if it ever does.
Its basis is broader and deeper to-day than when the
war began. The people understand its spirit better,
and are wedded to it by a more determined loyalty.
The great problems forced upon their attention, have
taught them their duties and revealed to them their
rights. And the Institution with which they might
have been tempted to compromise has ceased to exist.
Was the way of the wicked ever more utterly turned
upside down 1 The attempt was to assassinate Liberty ;
the result is that Slavery has been cast into an igno-
minious grave. The attempt was to rivet the chains of
bondage on a race of men ; the result is that they are
and ever shall be free. The attempt was to carry a
monstrous wrong upward to our Northern border ; the
result is that freedom and the right have been carried
downward to our Southern border. This is a new
feature in the history of rebellions. It teaches us that
they " fight against the stars in their courses " who
fight against the rights of man; that, as under the
throne so upon the throne, the march of human liberty
is forever onward. When it rises up none can hinder,
and when it strikes none can stand.

38 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

The war has also deepened the affection of the peo-
ple for the Union, in all parts of the land. The suffer-
ing and glory it has occasioned are a common heritage.
The East and West can never forget that they have
stood shoulder to shoulder throughout the terrible
struggle — that they have rejoiced together over the
same victories, and v^^ept together over the same
reverses. The blood of their sons has flowed together
on a hundred battle-fields, and those sons are now
sleeping side by side in the soldier's grave. Nor do
we doubt that the era of vriser counsels and kindlier
feeling, is coming to the people of the South ; when
they also, having learned the real cause of their
troubles, shall reach forth a fraternal hand unto those
who have broken the yoke ofan Oligarchy from off
their necks. Yes, it is our country ; our one country ;
our redeemed and renovated country, that every Ameri-
can heart embraces to-day. We of the East can never
resign our share in the glory of Sherman's army,
and they of the West will ever claim that the army
which conquered Lee was theirs. No patriot, from the
Mississippi to the Pacific Coast, will ever admit to
himself that the tomb of Abraham Lincoln is in a
foreign country ; and we who have " seen his star in
the East " can never endure a strange flag waving over
that shrine, as we go thither, with our sweet spices,
to remember whom he loved and for whom he was
offered.

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 39

I will name but one other result of the war, itself an
effect of the results already named. The question of
Sovereignty settled, the power of cohesion in a free
government proved, and the Eepublic raised to leader-
ship among the nations, our character as a people
will naturally improve. Not that the American people
have been especially bad, but they are in a condition
to grow better. The consciousness of power begets a
feeling of repose. It gives steadiness and self-poise to
both nations and men. If Southern " chivalry " had
been more genuine, it would have boasted less. If our
country had been more truly " the home of the free,"
the shouts for freedom would have been less noisy.
Those friends abroad who expect that we shall be made
vain-glorious and insolent by our success, are mistaken.
Being sure of our position, we shall lose our sensitive-
ness, and grow calmer and more self-possessed. Our
nationality is vindicated. Other governments, con-
temptuous once, now look toward us with respect and
fear. But their fear is groundless, so long as their
treatment of us is just. The war has not made us a
military people ; but only shown that when we must
fight we fight through to victory. Standing on our
high places, we shall not breathe out slaughter against
othej: nations, but the rather overlook their impotent
unfriendliness. This new dignity will be promotive of
peace everywhere. It will bring forth in us more of

40 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

the fruits of manly virtue. Ceasing to fear criticism,
we shall be less criticized. The opinions of foreigners
will not disturb us much hereafter. We shall learn to
be content, and modestly proud, in the enjoyment of
our own history, our own institutions, our own simple
manners and customs. It is respectable now to be a
citizen of the United States, — respectable anywhere.
We have only to keep quietly in our place. We have
a character, and that character will give a charm to
American life. Those who have taunted us hitherto
will henceforth treat us with deference. They will find
a new merit in our literature, a new refinement in our
society, — grace and dignity where all was vulgar and
trivial before. We shall learn that success, as well as
a good deed, shines very far " in a naughty world,"
that it transforms a nation of plebeians into a nation of
patricians, that it changes the worthless into the " most
worshipful." Heretofore America has imitated Eijrope;
hereafter Europe will imitate America. And the influ-
ence of this new treatment, instead of puffing us up,
will beget in us all a sober self-respect. It will render
us a c^almer people ; will make us content with our
citizenship, and all the simple republican customs
bequeathed to us. Thus shall the most lasting, the
grandest, the richest result of the mighty struggle be
secured.

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 41

I now come to the most grateful, and withal the
tenderest portion of my task. It is the offering of our
united thanks unto those who have achieved for us the
priceless boon. Soldiers from the Army and Navy, once
soldiers but now again citizens, we hail you to-day as
our benefactors and deliverers. We welcome you
home from the fatigues of the march, the wearisome
camp, and the awful ecstacy of battle. Through four
terrible years you have looked without quailing on the
ghastly visage of war. You have patiently borne the
heats of Summer and the frosts of Winter. You have
cheerfully exchanged the delights of home for the
hardships of the campaign or blockade. Not only the
armed foe, but the wasting malaria has lurked along
your resistless advance. You know the agony and the
transport of the deadly encounter. How many times,
standing each man at his post, in the long line of
gleaming sabres and bayonets, every hand clenched and
every eye distended, you have caught the peal of your
leader's clarion, and sprung through the iron storm to
the embrace of victory ! But all that has passed away.
The mangled forests are putting on an unwonted ver-
dure, the fields once blackened by the fiery breath of
war are now covered with their softest bloom, and the
vessels of commerce are riding on all the national
waters. The carnage, the groans, the cries for succor,
the fierce onset and sullen recoil, the thunders of the

42 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

artillery, and the missiles screaming like demons
in the air, have given way to paeans, civic proces-
sions and songs of thanksgiving. The flag of your
country, so often rent and torn in your grasp, and
v^hich you have borne to triumph again and again,
over the quaking earth or through the hurricane of
death in river and bay, rolls out its peaceful folds
above you, every star blazing vv^ith the glory of your
deeds, in token of a nation's gratitude. We come forth
to greet you, — sires and matrons, young men and
maidens, children and those bowed with age ; to own
the vast debt which we can never pay, and to say, from
full hearts, " We thank you, God bless you ! "

But while we thus address you, you are thinking of
the fallen. With a soldier's generosity you wish they
could be here to share in the thrice-earned welcome.
Possibly they are here, from many a grave in which
you laid them after the strife ; pleased with these fes-
tivities, and with the return of joy to the nation, but far
above any ability of ours either to bless or to injure.
You may tarnish your laurels, or an envious hand may
;^luck them from you. But your fallen comrades are
exposed to no such accident. They are doubly fortu-
nate, for the same event which croAvned them with
honor has placed them beyond the possibility of losing
their crown. Many of them died in the darkest hours
of the Kepublic ; others in the early dawn of peace.

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 43

while " the morning stars were singing together." But
victory and defeat make no differences among them
now. They all have conquered in the final triumph.
Their names will alike thrill the coming ages, as loftily
spoken by the tongues of the eloquent; and their
deeds will forever be chanted by immortal minstrels.
They were together " brave men, who repose in the
public monuments, all of whom alike, as being worthy
of the same honor, the country buried, not alone the
successful or victorious ; and justly, for the duty of
brave men was done by all, their fortune being such as
God assigned to each."

" By fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung ;
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray.
To hless the turf that wraps their clay ;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there."

And ye know, departed soldiers of the Eepublic, that
your President was a partaker in your " last full mea-
sure of devotion." Yes, you have him, for you deserve
him more than we. Have you left many widows on
the earth 1 Among them the wife of Abraham Lincoln
is one. Are your fatherless children now waiting for
us to pay over to them a little of the great debt we
owe 1 Among them the children of Abraham Lincoln

44 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

mourn a father gone to be with you. The man so
exalted, whose summons drew you from happy homes
to be oflFered on the altars of war, has himself followed
in the sacrificial column. His mortal form is laid as
low as yours. It can no longer be said that he called
you to a death which did not threaten him. O, ye
sightless couriers of the air, waiting around that new-
made sepulchre at Springfield, take up this truth — the
invisible Eepublic where President and people still are
one — and bear it abroad on gentle wings, and reveal it
tenderly to every poor heart that bemoans a husband,
or son, or friend, or brother slain ! In the words of an
ancient orator, " It becomes us to honor the dead, and
to lament the living. For what pleasure, what consola-
tion remains to them] They are deprived of those
who love them, but who preferring virtue to every con-
nection, have left them fatherless, widowed and forlorn.
Of all their relations, the children, too young to feel
their loss, are least to be lamented ; but most of all the
parents, who are too old ever to forget it. They nour-
ished and brought up children to be the comforts of
their age, but of these, in the decline of life, they are
deprived, and with them of all their hopes. We shall
best honor the dead, then, by extending our protection
to the living. We must assist and defend their widows,
protect and honor their parents, embrace and cherish
their orphans. Who deserve more honor than the

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 45

dead 1 Who are entitled to more sympathy than their
kindred?"

Nor in the field alone, has the meed of a nation's
thanks been earned. At home the fair have toiled and
waited for the brave. The flame on the altar of Hymen,
which has burnt low while there was sterner work to
do, will be kindled afresh at the return of the saviours
of the country. The Soldiers' Aid Societies, the San-
itary and Christian Commissions, and the records of all*
our military hospitals, are an eternal monument to
woman's patriotism and woman's love. And as, in the
past, they have chosen to be widows of brave men
rather than the wives of cowards, so now, neither scar
nor crutch, nor artificial limb, will damage the suit of
those who deserve the fair. Soldiers, while we applaud
your heroism, there is also due, from you, a recognition
of services by those who have not stood at the front.
As I am enough of a civilian to speak their gratitude
to you, so I have been enough of a soldier to return
thanks in your name to them. They have exerted
themselves to the utmost that you might lack no per-
sonal comfort, and that the sinews of war might ever
be tense and strong. And as the various classes of
loyal citizens look around upon one another to-day, each
esteeming others better than himself, perhaps the truest
word we can utter is that the whole loyal people of the

46 PEA.CE UNDER LIBERTY.

land, wherever any may have struggled or toiled, are
the real and the only chief hero of the war.

We cannot forget, in this glad hour, how much we
owe to the patriotic statesmen of former days. The
noble record of the last two Congresses is but the car-
rying forward of what their predecessors had begun.
We remember the perils and speak gently of the mis-
takes, while we admire what we wiU believe was the
purpose of those men. It is not in our hearts to doubt
on which side of the line of battle Eufus Choate would
have stood, had he lived to see that line clearly drawn.
In no man was the sentiment of nationality ever more
intense than in him. " The Union broken up 1 " we
can hear him exclaim with that preternatural voice of
his, " never, while there's enough of Plymouth Kock
left to make a gun flint of! " This whole bloody war
has been but the old battle between Webster and Cal-
houn, fought through with other weapons andi on a
broader stage. Their thoughts have sped from the
mouths of contending cannon ; their words have clashed
in the fierce shock of encountering steel. Their spirits
have struggled in the air while loyalty and treason
were struggling on the plain below. They have shud-
dered or smiled, as each one has seen his idea smitten
down or winning the dm. And when the final acclaim
of the armies of the Union went up, could we not
almost see the sullen ghost of Calhoun turning away

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 47

into the darkness ] Could we not again hear Webster's
voice coming to us in the grand music of the ocean,
across his tomb at Marshfield, and saying, " the aspira-
tion of my life is attained], I now do behold the
gorgeous ensign of the Eepublic known and honored
throughout the earth ; full high advanced, its arms and
trophies streaming in more than their original lustre,
not a stripe erased nor a star obscured ; and every-
where, spread all over in characters of living light,
blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea
and over the land, and in every wind under the whole
heaven, there is emblazoned that sentiment, dear to
every American heart — Liberty and Union, now and
forever, one and inseparable."

You will not deem it merely a professional act in
me, my friends, if I remind you that to God is due our
supreme gratitude to-day. This obligation you have
recognized in the service of prayer. The war has
renewed our faith in a Divine Providence controlling
the destinies of nations, and without which not a spar-
row falleth. His throne has rested firmly on the
vexed sea of Rebellion, and He has wielded all its
wrath for our complete deliverance. In the first shot
at Sumter we heard the voice of God saying, " arise,
my people ; " and in the last shot at Ford's Theatre we
saw Him delivering over the sword of justice into the
hands of one who believes that " treason is a crime,

48 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

and not merely diiFerence of opinion." All along He
has sent us defeats when our cause needed them.
Many a deliverance has been so unexpected, and from
sources so new and strange, that we could only say,
" it is the Lord's doing ;" nor did He permit the
crowning success to come until liberty had been
assured to all the inhabitants of the land. Perhaps
there is no pious word on record, more expressive of
what we should feel to-day, than Admiral Farragut's
order after the taking of New Orleans : " Eleven
o'clock this morning is the hour appointed to return
thanks to Almighty God for his great goodness and
mercy. At that hour the church pennant will be
hoisted on every vessel of the fleet, and their crews
assembled, will, in humiliation and pmyer, make their
acknowledgments therefor, to the Great Dispenser of
all human events." Following this bright example,
and that of many loyal governors and brave generals,
and of our departed and our living President, — nay,
indeed, speaking from the deep impulse of our own
thankful hearts, — it is unto the Lord that we sing our
new song, for he it is that hath done marvellous
things : " His right hand and His holy arm have got-
ten Him the victory."

Let it not be inferred, from the tenor of these
remarks, that I see no peril in the future. What shall

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 49

be the treatment of the disloyal, and what the basis of
citizenship in the reconstructed States, are questions of
grave concern.

Are we exhorted to be kind to the Eebels ] That
appeal is needless. We shall be kind to them. Many
of us have very tender reasons for treating them
kindly. We always have been kind to them ; erring
on that side, and yielding to their unjust demands, until
they inferred that we could not be aroused to maintain
our rights. We may accept it as an axiom, that the
people of the North cannot be cruel towards the
leaders in the South. AU our danger, then, is on the
other side. Let us not give other nations occasion to
say that we make a commodity of justice. Let not
the offenders themselves despise us for fearing to vin-
dicate the majesty of the Eepublic. Will good citi-
zens feel altogether safe, in our country, if it is to
have admired Eebels roaming at large in all parts of it
for a generation to come ] Let us not be so kind to
the disloyal as to be unkind to the loyal. Should not
those in the South who have fought on our side be
cared for before those who have fought against us 1
Those who have been true to the Government should
be protected first. This is justice, whose claims are
sacred. Nor is it magnanimity, but a crime which
nature abhors, to cherish enemies who are outraging
our friends. Shall we leave the blacks in the power

7

50 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

of the exasperated foe, knowing, as we do, that the
savage spite which cannot touch us will be wreaked
upon their unsheltered heads'? I shall believe that
the revolt of the rebel angels has succeeded, and that
Satan now sits on the throne of God, if such horrible
treachery can exist and go unscourged of heaven !
While the Saviour of men was riding in triumph to
Jerusalem, " He beheld the city, and wept over it."
But those tears did not prevent Him from saying,
" Behold your house is left unto you desolate." Imitat-
ing that divine act to-day, we raise our bitter cry over
prostrate treason, even while we call on Justice to draw
out her sharp sword. There is no malignity in our
hearts, but a reverent prayer that the sovereignty of
the nation may be magnified and made honorable.
They would have it so. They trampled on our for-
bearance and warnings, and defied the power which
should be " a terror to evil doers." Let justice be
done without the least over-doing. Let their doom be
so reasonable that no wicked sympathy shall dare to lift
its head. Let them be put where no " foreign corre-
spondent " can glorify them ; where no unfriendly court
can make use of them ; where no lying pens of their
own can fill the world with histories of their treason
disguised as patriotism, and of their attempt to na-
tionalize barbarism painted as a struggle for human
liberty. Let them be so punished that their example

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 51

can never prove contagious, and be buried where the
bloodhounds of despotism can never scent their
graves !

Two acts of the struggle for liberty in America are
past ; the third and consummating act is now upon us.
The first act closed under Washington, when the Colo-
nies were acknowledged to be free and independent
States ; the second act closed under Lincoln, with the
vindication of the sovereignty of the Union ; the third
act will close when equal political rights are conceded
to all men. God grant that the last act may not, like
the first two, deluge the land with blood ! May the
evil tree be plucked up in the hour of its weakness,
before its roots have undergrown and its branches
overspread the Republic. The Emancipation Procla-
mation was but incidental to the war for the Union.
Not in the purpose of man, but by the arrangement of
God, it has knocked off" the chains of the slave. And it
has done a negative, rather than a positive work. It
has delivered the blacks from chattel slavery, but it has
not introduced them into civil liberty. How this last
act shall be achieved is the problem now forced upon
the country. Our statesmen cannot evade it if they
would ; it is taxing their wisdom beyond any other ques-
tion of the hour ; and whoever solves it successfully will
complete the grand American triumvirate. We could
wish that the triumvirate, when full, might read —

52 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

Washington, Lincoln, Johnson. Do any say that it is
inconsistent to demand citizenship for the blacks in the
States now returning to the Union, while in many of
the so-called Free States only the whites are admitted
to the ballot ■? But the people of these latter States
have not rebelled. Security for the future may re-
quire of disloyal communities what should not be
exacted of the loyal. Only those who have broken
the peace are put under bonds to keep the peace.
" But the question of suffrage belongs to the States."
So it does, while they are in their normal condition.
Perhaps the day of military necessity is over ; but is
there not a necessity of state quite as pressing, which,
if not yielded J to, will ultimately become a military
necessity ? If you cannot do a righteous deed for its
own sake, yet doing it to prevent war is better states-
manship than waiting for the war to come. A free
government can be said to fulfil its purpose only when
no class of persons under it has wrongs to be re-
dressed. Emancipation is but a mockery of the
blacks, especially while among their late masters, if
they be not admitted to citizenship. Perhaps it did
not occur to Mr. Lincoln, perhaps he thought it un-
wise at the time, to make his Proclamation perfect by
adding to it : " And, that the promises herein con-
tained may not prove illusory in the end, I do also pro-
claim, and cause to be published and proclaimed, that,

PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 53

in reconstructing the State governments now disor-
ganized, the blacks shall be admitted to all the rights
of freemen on the same conditions with the whites."
How much present anxiety would have been prevented
by some such golden clause ! But we will beheve that
the question is in safe hands. Surely the Congress, if
made wise by the events of the past, will not " guarantee
a republican form of government" to any State, while
there is manifestly, in that State, a spirit hostile to the
very principles of republicanism. To the loyalty, wis-
dom, and patriotism of our statesmen we confide this
grave concern. They alone can decide it peacefully ;
and may God have them in his holy keeping !

Anticipating the gradual solution of all remaining
difficulties, in a manner which shall fulfil the hopes of
a generous patriotism, I see, before our country, a
future too grand for my feeble portrayal ; a development
of the resources of nature, a growth of manufactures,
a commerce, civilization, and Christianity, which shall
be the glory of the New World and the wonder of the
Old. No man, standing at the sources of the Amazon,
can bring within the range of his vision all its mighty
course from the mountains to the sea; — its broad
tributaries with their interlacing streams ; its silent
advance through primeval forests, and vaster sweep
across luxuriant savannas ; the sails of adventurers,
and of scientific explorers, moving up into its alluring

54: PEACE UNDER LIBERTY.

mystery ; the inexhaustible wealth of field and mine to
which it is a natural highway ; the current, so like an
ocean, with which it proudly yields at last to the
ocean's embrace. And so, standing to-day by the
sources of this new stream in American history, we
cannot foresee all its unfolding volume ; its distant
greatness, and grandeur, and majesty; the destinies,
mortal and immortal, of both nations and individuals,
which it will gather upon its ample bosom, and bear
onward and onward, into the unbounded hereafter.
We can only lift up our overflowing hearts toward
Him whose rod has brought the water out of the rock,
and ask that He would direct its wondrous course ;
draining the richness of all the civilizations into it, and
causing it to bless the ages through which it shall roll,
until it mingles in that sea of latter-day glory, whose
law is peace, and whose tides and waves are the pulsa-
tions of a perfect love.

THE CELEBEATION

THE CELEBRATION.

The Committee of the City Council for making the necessary
arrangements to celebrate the eighty-ninth anniversary of the
Declaration of American Independence, July 4, 1865, was ap-
pointed February 18, and consisted of Aldermen John S.
Tyler, Geo. W. Messinger, L. Miles Standish, Charles F.
Dana, Geo. W. Sprague, Nathaniel C. Nash, and Edward F.
Porter; Councilmen Wm. B. Fowle, John Miller, W. W.
Elliott, N. J. Bean, Wm. W. Warren, Joseph Allen, F. W.
Palfrey, John P. Ordway, S. H. Loring, J. C. Haynes,
S. B. Stebbins, M. W. Pichardson, and Sumner Crosby.

By invitation of the Committee, His Honor Mayor Lincoln
was invited to consult with them, and to act with and for them
on public occasions. Before the time had arrived for making
definite and precise preparations for the celebration, the War
came to an end, and it was considered on all hands that the
Fourth of July ought to be signalized by demonstrations of joy
even more extensive than have heretofore been customary. The
appropriation was accordingly increased by the City Council,
and the Committee devoted themselves to perfecting a pro-
gramme of celebration which would gratify all classes and suit
all proper tastes. The elements marred the full success of some

58 THE CELEBRATION.

of the entertainments, but, as a whole, it is believed the celebra-
tion was satisfactory to the public, and a fit exposition of the
prevalent happy state of feeling in the community.

According to custom, the bells were rung at sunrise, noon,
and sunset, and salutes were fired upon the Common, by Capt.
French's 2d Battery, at the same hours.

DECORATIONS.

The City Hall, and other public buildings and places were
decorated freely with flags, mottoes, shields, &c. From the
line crossing Chauncy Street was suspended a shield, bearing on
one side the motto : ' ' The security of the American Eepublic
rests in the equality of human rights." (Keverse side.) " God
bless the Union ! It is dearer to us for the blood of our brave
men shed in its defence." At the entrance to the Common, by
Park Street, a large and beautiful banner motto was suspended.
On the front side .was the motto : ' ' We exult that a Nation has
not fallen." On one side of this motto was a figure of Justice,
with the scales, &Q,. On the other side the Goddess of
Liberty. On the reverse side of this banner a motto : "A
new birth of Freedom," with the figure '65 underneath, flanked
by a representation of the soldier and sailor. A similar ban-
ner, with the following mottoes, was at the Boylstdn and
Charles streets entrance: " One Flaa: — One Government."
(Eeverse.) " The Union, it must be preserved."

On Beacon Street Mall, where tables were set for a collation
to the "Veteran Soldiers," for nearly 350 feet, flags and
other bunting were extended on both sides, and up into the

THE CELEBKATION. 59

trees, in such a manner as to create a very picturesque effect.
At the entrance, opposite Walnut Street, was a large canvas
shield, bearing the motto : —

" Honor to the gallant defenders of the Star-Spangled
Banner."

Nearer the foot of the Mall was another shield, on which
were the mottoes : ' ' What the fathers gained in blood may
the sons preserve by virtue ! " and " Liberty and Union, one
and indivisible, now and forever ! "

There was also attached to the trees bordering this display
of bunting the names — Abraham Lincoln, Grant, Sherman,
Hooker, Burnside, Hancock, Howard, and Sedgwick, on one
side of the Mall, and on the opposite were the following names
in similar order : Kichmond, Vicksburg, Shenandoah Valley,
Knoxville, Antietam, Wilderness, Petersburg, Fredericksburg,
Gettysburg, and Chancellorville.

The following mottoes were hung at the places designated,
with flags : —

Across Winter Street, at Music Hall : —

"Indemnity for the past and security for the future; the
noblest indemnity and the strongest security ever won, be-
cause founded in the redemption of a race."

Eeverse side — "All honor to the Army and Navy of the
United States. Animated by a love of their country, they
went forward at its call, and have reaped what they well de-
served — the Nation's gratitude."

Across Merchants Eow from Faneuil Hall to Market : —

"I leave you, hoping that the lamps of Liberty will burn
in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all
men are created free and equal."— Abkaham Lincoln.

60 THE CELEBRATION.

Eeverse side — "All honor to the Citizen Soldiers of Mas-
sachusetts ! In the "War for Independence in 1776, and in
the War for Freedom in 1861, foremost to defend and prompt
to shed their blood in support of man's inalienable right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Across Washington Street from Boston Theatre : —

' ' AVashington promulgated our principles — Warren died
in their defence. We intend to perpetuate them."

Reverse side — ' ' The memories of the fathers are the in-
spirations of her sons."

A MOENING CONCERT

was given upon the Common, at 7 o'clock in the morning,
and was listened to with apparent gratification by many thou-
sand people. The musicians numbered eighty, under the
direction of Mr. B. A. Burditt, and the pieces played were as
follows : —

Hail Columbia.

Russian National Hymn.

Medley of Popular Airs.

England's National Hymn.

Dirge in Memory of President Lincoln.

Hallelujah Chorus.

French National Air.

Ireland's National Air.

German Fatherland.

Our Country's National Airs.

Old Hundred.

THE CELEBRATION. 61

THE CHILDEEN'S CELEBEATION.

Musical and other entertainments, chiefly for the children of
the Public Schools, were provided during the day at Music
Hall, Andrews Hall, and the Boston Theatre. These enter-
tainments were under the management of a Committee of the
Warren Street Chapel, subject to the directions of the Sub-
committee on Children's Celebrations. At the Music Hall,
before and after the Oration, at 9, 3i, and 5| o'clock, three
National Organ Concerts were given by Mr. G. E. Whiting
and Mrs. L. S. Frohock". At Andrews Hall, at 9, 11, 1, 3,
and 5 o'clock, there were exhibitions of natural magic, legerde-
main, ventriloquism, and Punch and Judy, by Henry Bryant.
At the Boston Theatre there was dancing and promenade, with
fuU bands of Music, from 9i to 1, and 2 J to 6 o'clock. All
these places were fully attended.

At the Music Hall, during the interval between the fourth
and fifth performances on the programme of the first concert
in the morning. His Honor Mayor Lincoln entered, escorting
General Anderson and Admiral Farragut, who were greeted
with loud cheers and tempestuous applause, waving of hats and
handkerchiefs, every one rising in their seats.

The gentlemen being seated and the tumult subsiding, the
Mayor came forward and said : —

My Friends : I thought to have the pleasure of introducing to
you our noble guests here, but I perceive that they are already
introduced and recognized by you, — bound to you heart to
heart. Still, I will do myself the honor formally to present to
you Vice-Admiral Farragut.

62 THE CELEBEATION.

Admiral Farragut rose amid renewed and vociferous ap-
plause, and as soon as he could obtain silence, said : —

' ' It affords me great pleasure to return thanks to you for this
greeting, and after an absence of forty years to meet you on
this glorious day."

The Mayor: "And now for the hero of Fort Sumter:"
(Great applause.)

General Anderson rose and said : —

" I can only thank you, as I do, from the bottom of my heart."

During the enthusiastic demonstrations of the audience which
ensued, Miss Hattie Lincoln, daughter of His Honor the Mayor,
presented to Admiral Farragut an elegant bouquet, and Miss
Addie Standish, daughter of Alderman Standish, presented a
similar one to General Anderson.

Mr. James R. Elliott than sang in fine style, " Columbia, the
gem of the ocean," the audience joining in the chorus.

While singing the last verse, Mr. Elliott turned toward Gen-
eral Anderson and Admiral Farragut, singing these lines : —

" May the wreaths they have worn never wither,
Nor the stars of their glory grow dim !
May the service united ne'er sever,

But they to their colors prove true !
Oh ! the Army and Navy forever !
Three cheers for the Hed, White, and Blue ! "

Which were received with loud applause. Alderman George
W. Messinger then presented two very handsome bouquets to
Misses Lincoln and Standish, and soon after His Honor the
Mayor and his distinguished guests retired, and drove to
Andrews Hall, where the General and Admiral were received

THE CELEBRATION. 63

with cheers from the children, who, at the Mayor's request,
then sang a verse of "The Star-Spangied Banner." They
thence proceeded to the Boston Theatre, the audience rising and
the band in the balcony playing " Hail to the Chief," as they
entered and advanced up the platform to the front of the stage,
the young misses on the floor encircling the area in a double
line.

Silence being restored, His Honor Mayor Lincoln said : —

' ' I beg to congratulate you all on the happy auspices of this
occasion, and to present to you Vice-Admiral Farragut and
Jlajor-General Eobert Anderson."

General Anderson thus replied to the loud applause of the
youthful assembly : —

"My little friends, I wish that I could take you all by the
hand and thank you for this welcome." (Grreat applause.)

Admiral Farragut said : —

' ' It aifords me the deepest gratification to meet you on this
glorious day, and to thank you for this complimentary recep-
tion." (Great applause and cheers.)

Nine young ladies in costume then came forward and danced
the Highland Fling in a manner which was loudly applauded
by the spectators. Mayor Lincoln and party withdrew shortly
after, the band playing the National airs, and the large assembly
cheering enthusiastically.

THE PROCESSION

was formed at City Hall (corner of Bedford and Chauncy
streets) at ten o'clock. The Chief Marshal was Brevet Brig.
Gen. Wm. S. Tilton, who was assisted by Col. P. R. Guiney,

64 THE CELEBRATION.

Maj. J. Henry Sleeper, Capt. Nathan Appleton, and H. W.
Tilton, Esq. as aids, and by the following assistant marshals :
Lieut. Col. P. T. Hanley, Maj. J. W. Mahan, Capt. W. T. W.
BaU, Capt. M. F. O'Hara, Capt. Wm. A. Hill, Lieut. C. F.
Williams, Maj. W. T. Eustis, 3d, Maj. E. T. Lombard, Capt.
Geo. D. Putnam, Capt. J. P. Jordan, Lieut. James Darling,
Dr. E. G. Tucker, J. W. Wolcott, Jr., James H. Eoberts,
J. T. Fuller, Geo. F. Williams, Jr., Levi C. Barney, John
D. Cadogan.

The procession marched in the following order : —

Twelve mounted Police Officers, in command of Sergeant
John M. Dunn.

Col. Charles E. Codman and staff, in command of the escort.

Band from Gallop's Island.

Second Eegiment of Infantry, under command of Lieut. Col.
O. W. Peabody.

The Lincoln Guards of South Boston, Capt. M. E. Bigelow.

The Newton Zouaves, Capt. Alfred SchofF, a company of lads.

The 14th unattached Company of militia, Capt. Lewis Gaul.

Gilmore's Band with a Drum Corps.

The Boston Light Infantry Eegiment, H. O. Whittemore,
Captain commanding.

The 1st Battery Light Artillery, Capt. Cummings.

The 2d Battery Light Artillery, Capt. French.

Bond's Cornet Band.

Brig. Gen. Wm. S. Tilton, Chief Marshal, and Aids.

First Division. Col. Thomas Sherwin, Chief of Division.
Aids, Capt. Geo. M. Barnard, Jr., and Lieut. John G.
Kinsley.

THE CELEBRATION. 65

This Division was composed of the City Government, various
present and past City, County, and State officials, officers of the
N. E. Veteran Association, invited guests, and the Boston
Scottish Club in Highland costume, and the American Hiber-
nian Society vv^ith their offioers and beautiful banners in a car-
riage, the members following on foot in good numbers and
wearing their handsome regalia.

Second Division. Col. A. F. Devereux, Chief of Division.
Aids, Lieut. Col. W. S. Davis, and Capt. A. P. Martin.
This Division was composed entirely of returned soldiers, headed-
by cavalrymen, preceded by a drum corps of young lads with
Master CofEn, acting Drmn Major.

Next was borne a banner on which was the motto, "The
Nation's Defenders," who were represented by members of dif-
ferent Army Corps, each bearing a representation of their corps
badge, as follows : —

1st Corps, " Buck's Eye."

2d Corps, " Clover."

3d Corps, "Diamond."

5th Corps, "Maltese Cross."

6th Corps, " Eoman Cross."

9th Corps, " Anchor and Shield."

lOtb Corps, " Four-Bastioned Fort."

11th Corps, " Crescent."

20th Corps, "Heart."

Then came four large wagons, each drawn by four noble
horses, furnished by Adams & Co.'s Express Company, and by
9

66 THE CELEBRATION.

Jordan, Marsh, & Co., containing disabled veterans. As the
brave and crippled men passed, the thousands of people who
lined the sidewalks greeted them with hearty cheers.

The procession moved from City Hall in Chauncy Street,
through Summer, Winter, Tremont, Park, and Beacon streets,
to Arlington Street ; through Arlington to Boylston Street ;
through Boylston to Park Square ; through Park Square and
Pleasant Street to Tremont Street ; through Tremont, Dover,
Washington, and Winter streets, to the Music Hall.
■ The City Council and guests entered Music Hall, and the
escort conducted the veterans to the foot of Beacon Street Mall.

THE SOLDIEBS' COLLATION.

Twenty tables were laid in Beacon Street Mall for the vet-
eran returned soldiers and sailors, of which they partook with a
hearty relish. After the eatables were disposed of, some of the
veterans made brief remarks appropriate to the occasion, and
among others Mr. Benjamin F. Norcross, a veteran sailor of thirty
years' standing, who came home in the Canandaigua, made an
interesting speech, which was listened to with marked attention.
The company separated after giving cheers for the Army and
Navy.

SEEVICES IN THE MUSIC HALL.

The Music Hall was filled to overflowing. It had been ap-
propriately draped, for the occasion, the names of the States
and of John Hancock and the other signers of the Declaration
of Independence, from Massachusetts, being prominent upon

THE CELEBRATION. 67

the galleries. There were also mottoes mating proper allusion
to the preservation of the Union by the valor of our brave men.

Soon after 12 o'clock, Mayor Lincoln entered with Admiral
Farragut and Gen. Anderson, who were received with tremen-
dous cheering. The singing of the " Star-Spangled Banner,"
which opened the exercises, was by a Choir selected from the
High and Grammar schools, under the direction of Mr. Carl
Zerrahn, and received much applause. A prayer was oifered
by Eev. Henry W. Foote, when the " Chorus of Pilgrims,"
from " I Lombardi," was sung.

The Declaration of Independence was gracefully read by
Master Charles Harris Phelps. Kev. Mr. Manning, then de-
livered his Oration. It was warmly applauded, particularly the
allusions to the suppressed passage of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and to Farragut, Stringham, Grant, Sherman, An-
derson, and President Lincoln, and the great act of his admin-
istration.

The following Original Hymn, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
was then sung to the Music of the " Old Hundredth Psalm."

Our Fathers built the house of God ;

Rough-hewn, with haste its slabs they laid ;
The savage man in ambush trod ;

And stUl they worshipped undismayed.

They wrought like stalwart men of war,
Who wrung the state from heathen hands ;

Who bore their faith's high banner far,
And in its name possessed the lands.

68 THE CELEBRATION.

The skill of strife to peaceful arts,
Their perils over, glad gave way ;

The bond of freedom joined men's hearts
More near than meaner compact may.

We, followers of their task and toil,
Inherited their dangers too ;

Drove bloody rapine from our soU,
Th' oppressor dared, the murderer slew.

Our heavy work, like theirs, at end ;

Returning from the death-won field,
Brother with brother, friend with friend,

Again the house of God we build.

Oh ! may our ransomed freedom dwell
In truth's own citadel secure ;

And blameless guardians foster well
The mystic flame that must endure.

The flame of holy human love.
That makes our liberties divine ;

Let each strong arm its champion prove.
And each true heart its deathless shrine.

Benediction was pronounced by the Chaplain.

DINNER AT FANEUIL HALL.

At the close of the exercises at Music Hall, a procession
was formed of the City Council and its guests, which marched
directly to Faneuil Hall. The decorations of the Hall were
somewhat more carefully and elaborately arranged than is cus-
tomary on such occasions, and are thus described by the
decorators, Messrs. Lamprell & Marble : —

THE CELEBRATION. 69

" The entrance was through an arch of flags. From the
centre of the ceiling was suspended a large star, tWenty-five
feet in diameter, composed of flags of all nations, in the
centre of which was a blue field with silver stars. The points
of the star were tipped with gilt ornaments. Radiating from
the star were American pennants and various-colored bunting
to the capital of each pillar ; also red, white, and blue bunting
extending around the cornice of the Hall. A large arch of
green and gilt spanned the eagle, with a motto, "Peace —
Reunion — Liberty." On the pillars were emblems of war,
U. S. shield, liberty cap, &c. From the arch, and attached
to the pillars, were a canopy of blue field, with stars, envel-
oping the eagle. On the panels of the Gallery were the names
of some of our most prominent army and naval officers. On
one side of the clock was " Fareagut — Welcome, in the
Cradle of Liberty, to the noble leader of our brave and gallant
Navy, who, in his own career, has embodied the loyalty, the
valor, and the courage which has borne our hardy tars on to
glorious victory." On, the opposite side, "Grant — All
honor to the great Captain of the age, who combines the
perseverance of Wellington with the strategy of Napoleon."
On the side galleries, " Meade," " Sherman," " Sheridan,"
"Porter," "Foote," " Steingham," " Winsi.ow," and
' ' Anderson " — Faithful among the faithless ! Deserted by
his Commander-in-Chief, he withstood all temptations, choos-
ing death rather than the surrender of his country's flag to
sedition and treason." Small glories of flags and shields were
interspersed between the panels. White, red, and blue bunt-
ing extended in festoons around the base of the galleries, and

70 THE CELEBRATION.

American flags and bunting were appropriately festooned in
the rear of the rostrum. The lower windows were curtained
with American flags and white, pink, and blue lace. The
upper windows were decorated with flags of all nations.
There were also large American flags on each side of the
lower doors. Bronze medallions, life size, of the late
President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, Lieutenant-General
Grant, Major-General Meade, Major-General Butler, and
Vice-Admiral Farragut, adorned the wall behind the
Mayor's chair. On the rostrum in front, in the midst of
a sea of beautiful mosses and flowers and aquatic plants,
appeared a fine miniature representation of the U. S. ship
Hartford, the flag-ship of Admiral Farragut at the battle of
New Orleans."

His Honor Mayor Lincoln presided at the tables, and,
upon his invitation, the Divine blessing was invoked by the
Chaplain of the Day, Rev. Henry W. Foote.

The dinner was then spread, and the company occupied
nearly an hour in the practical discussion of its merits. The
cloth was then removed, when Mayor Lincoln rose and spoke
as follows : —

" Fellow-Citizens : Again, under happy auspices, we
are assembled in Faneuil Hall, and, in company with distin-
guished guests, celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration
of Independence. For the past four years our civic feast has
been omitted. We have repaired to other temples, as has
been the custom of the people of Boston on this day since
the close of the Revolutionary War, and with prayer and

THE CELEBRATION. 71

praise have listened to those words of hope and cheer which
were befitting the solemn exigency through which our country
was passing ; but our hearts were not attuned to those jubilant
strains, which graced in happier times the festivities of our
commemorative exercises.

" This venerated Hall, indeed, during this time, has not been
closed. It has been exerting an influence from its traditional
history, and from the live men whose eloquence has rung
through its arches, as important as in any period since one
stone was laid upon the other. Its doors have opened on
their golden hinges to our armed men going to or coming
from the gage of battle. They have been inspired by the
patriotic memories which impregnate its walls. Their faith
in the good old cause has been strengthened as they remem-
bered the Fathers who rocked the cradle in the infancy of the
Republic ; and their indignation has been aroused as they
heard the traitor's threat, that the Rebel flag would one day
float over the sacred edifice. The stern discipline of sorrow,
and gloom was laid upon the land, to test the manhood
of the people. The trial has been severe, and the sacrifice
great; but through the Providence of God, and the might
of the gallant men on the land and on the sea, who have
nnflinchingly stood by their country in its hour of peril, the
Republic is saved, and we rejoice to-day with shouts of tri-
umph unexampled in our history.

' ' What a contrast is the celebration of to-day to all which
have preceded it ! Before the late Rebellion, it was our cus-
tom to assemble to rehearse the noble story of our Fathers.
Sometimes the thoughtful would raise the question if we of

72 THE CELEBRATION.

this generation were worthy of the rich inheritance they had
bequeathed to us. We rejoiced, in holiday attire, over the
deeds of our ancestors. Had a long peace and unexampled
worldly prosperity sapped the foundations of public virtue?
Had we become degenerate and unequal to the peculiar mission
committed to us as one of the family of nations ? The events
of the last four years have answered these doubts. Our
valor and mettle have been tried and tested ; and we have
shown to the world, and the record has been made on the
historic page, that this people are ' worthy sons of worthy
sires ; ' and that the impulses of a lofty patriotism beat as
strongly in their bosoms as it did in the bosoms of those heroic
men who pledged their lives and sacred honor, or stood the
shock of battle in the war of the Eevolution.

' ' The principles which they enunciated in the immortal
document put forth to the world July Fourth, 1776, have
received a more emphatic indorsement than even they were
able to give them ; and we stand to-day, an name and in spirit,
in fact and in deed, a free and independent people. Chattel
slavery, ' that thorn in the flesh, ' which was so foreign
to the genius of our Republican form of government, and
which has had such an irritating influence upon the constitu-
tion of the body politic, no longer is a reproach to our fair
name ; and on this glorious anniversary, another race, born
within the limits of the Eepublic, salutes our flag, as it rises
in the morning's fresh light, as their emblem of freedom and
manhood.

' ' We to-day commence a new epoch in the history of the
nation. Assuming a position in the world which neither

THE CELEBRATION. 73

foreign nations nor domestic traitors can ever hereafter shake,
our own military questions settled, we are to be called upon,
as American citizens, to meet new duties and responsibilities
growing out of an altered state of affairs. Following as a
guide the principles laid down by the Fathers, instructed and
enlightened by the events, recent and remote, which have
transpired since the Federal Government was organized,
crushing the spirit of despotism wherever it exists in old in-
stitutions, and infusing more of the spirit of liberty and humani-
ty into all those which affect the present or the future happiness
of the people, let patriotism, not party, be the touchstone to
which every new measure of statesmanship shall be applied ;
and the world will be given to understand that the citizens of
the United States are indeed, now and forever, one people.

" Let a broad nationality which obliterates State lines be
our absorbing passion. As our soldiers on the field, as our
sailors on the deck, stood together in the late conflict with
the Rebel foe, looking only to the one flag of the Union float-
ing over them, so may we, bound together by the perils we
have passed, become more firmly fixed in the resolve that
the links which make these thirty-six commonwealths one
nation shall never be severed.

"With these few observations, fellow-citizens, and con-
gratulating you upon the inspiring circumstances under which
we are celebrating the eighty-ninth anniversary of American
Independence, with a cordial welcome to Faneuil Hall, to the
brave men whose gallant exploits have given a new significance
and glory to the hallowed observance of the day, cordially
ffreetino: at our festivities the heroic commander of Fort

10

74 THE CELEBRATION.

Sumter, whose intrepid garrison first received and respond-
ed to the dastardly shots aimed at the honored ensign of
the Republic, with a welcome as large as a sailor's heart
to the Vicfc-Admiral, whose noble deeds have added to the
fame as they have given a new name and rank to the navy
of the United States, I will call upon you all, as loyal men,
to rise while I propose the health of one who should be
uppermost in our hearts to-day : —

'" His Excellency, Andrew Johnson, the President of the
United States.'"

The Band played " The Star-Spangled Banner," the company
standing.

The Mayor- then introduced the Hon. John Lowell, Judge
of the U. S. District Court, to respond to the sentiment just
offered. Judge Lowell said : —

" I esteem myself peculiarly fortunate, Mr. Mayor, in being
called upon to respond, at this precise time, to the loyal and
ever-welcome sentiment — ' The President of the United
States.'

, " For the first time for four years we can hail the sentiment
without misgiving and without drawback. No thought here
and now of Presidents de jure and Presidents de facto : no
subtle, unexpressed, irrepressible, afterthought, of ' so-called'
Presidents, ruling over a ' so-called ' nation within our own in-
herited domain. The ' so-called ' are now busily engaged in
throwing the blame upon each other, and ask of us only to be
let alone, and need from us only Christian justice and Christian
mercy. There is but one President now, thank God, from
Canada to Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific seas.

THE CELEBRATION. 75

" And the events of these four years o^ doubt, of struggle,
and of progress, have taught us something about that great office
itself, of which the brave, steady, thoroughly patriotic Andrew
Johnson is now the worthy representative ; have purged away,
let us hope, some of the cankers of a full time and a long
peace.

"In the course of that long period of prosperity, we had
come to look upon the President of the United States too much
as the mere chief of a successful party, as a gentleman -who had
a large number of party friends to reward, and of party ene-
mies to punish, at the public expense ; to the public damage, too
often, for the men that he turned out of office (of whatever
party) were, on the average, better than the men he put in, by
an experience of four years in oflBce. I appeal to every office-
holder here if this will not be true — of his successor.

" We need to talk, jestingly, of loaves and fishes ; but what
were the five thousand and the seven thousand who were fed by
these miracles to the swarms that infested Washington on the
4th of March of every fourth year ? I guess all the white male
citizens of Judea, with a considerable sprinkling of Assyrians
thrown in (those Assyrians that ' came down ' to march farther
than they intended) , would hardly be a circumstance to the free
and enlightened citizens of this Eepublic, who were ready to
serve their country, in the interests of their party, in those happy
days that are gone.

' ' But the war has taught us that the Presidents are intended
for something besides making and unmaking tide waiters.
Step by step, hour by hour, day by day, the man we had, by
the blessino- of an overruling Providence, chosen to do these

76 THE CELEBRATION.

little things, develop'ed and grew to the height of ruling over
many things, until on that fatal day in April there was scarcely
a man in the civilized world that did not realize in Abraham
Lincoln the'fit constitutional chief of a great, persistent, mag-
nanimous, and free people.

" He is gone ! he is entered into the joy of his Lord. But
his S'uccessor has, resting upon him, responsibilities scarcely less
heavy, duties less conspicuous, but almost equally important.
Let us give him — more than our respect — our love, our sym-
pathy, and our prayers, that he may be enabled to conduct this
nation wisely, humanely, safely through the shoals and breakers
that still surround us, into the final haven of freedom, equality,
and peace."

The Mayor next gave ' ' The Commonwealth of Massachu-
setts." He remarked that no Executive of any Loyal State
had been more zealous and efficient in upholding the Govern-
ment in its^ effijrts to restore the Union than His JExcellency
John A. Andrew, and he regretted that it was impossible for
him to be present here. The Governor and the State were,
however, well represented by Eev. S. K. Lothrop, D. D. who,
as Chaplain of the Cadets, the Governor's body-guard, had
been deputed by the Governor to appear in his place.

Dr. Lothrop spoke as follows : —

"Mr. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens: —

" I have had a great many pleasures and honors, sir, in my
life, — more than I deserved, — but never such an honor as
this, — that I should be called upon to respond for the Old

THE CELEBRATION. 77

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on the 4th of July, In Faneuil
Hall, — an honor to which I have been summoned and detailed
by his Excellency, the Governor, because I happened to be
Chaplain to his Guard of Honor, the Independent Corps of
Cadets, and I suppose that there is nobody between that humble
office and his Excellency, who could be brought here to-day to
speak for him.

"It is an honor which, in my most ambitious aspirings, I
could never have dreamed would be mine, and therefore, Mr.
Mayor and Fellow-Citizens, I beg you not to be surprised,
should you perceive that the singular modesty for which I am
known to be distinguished seems to be a little overborne by the
extraordinary distinction vrhich devolves upon me this day. If
ever it was to devolve upon me to speak for the Commonwealth,
I rejoice that it has come on an occasion of so much interest
and importance as this year's Commemoration of our great
National Anniversary ; and If I had to speak for any Governor, I
am very glad to speak for Governor Andrew. He Is a man of
so much decision and independence of character, that doubtless
there are many who do not entirely like him, but I may confi-
dently assume that it will be admitted by the great mass of men
in this State, of all parties, that he has presided over our State
aifalrs with singular wisdom and energy during a period of great
public peril and anxiety, and that through his unquestionable
ability, through his untiring industry, through his pohtical
sagacity, through his undeviating and undaunted loyalty, he has
so conducted his administration of our affairs for the last, now
nearly, five years, as to make it form an interesting, important,
brilliant, and glorious Chapter in the History of this Ancient

78 THE CELEBRATION.

Commonwealth. I am not ' in the political line,' Mr. Mayor,
but on the broad basis of a patriotic citizenship, I am ready to
say, ' all honor to Governor Andrew, for the ability and fidelity
with which he has upheld the honor of the State during these
years of Civil War.'"

" But it is time, Mr. Mayor and gentlemen, that His Excel-
lency should be permitted to speak for himself. With your
leave, therefore, I will read a letter which he requested me to
read on this occasion, which is as follows : —

"Commonwealth or Massachusetts, Executive
• "Depaktment, Boston, June SO, 1865.

'< His Honor F. W. Lincoln, Je., Mayor, Boston, Mass.

" Mr DEAR Sir : My absence from Boston during a part of
next week will prevent my enjoying the opportunity oflTered by
your invitation to share with the City Government of Boston
tlie festive commemoration of the anniversary of American
Independence, which it is one of the distinctions of Boston
that she always celebrates with a fervent and generous devo-
tion, worthy the eminent fame of her ' Cradle of Liberty.'

' ' I think she is the only city in the Union of which it can
be affirmed that this commemoration, in all the forms of the
prophecy imputed to John Adams, is observed and kept by
the municipality and by the people, in Peace and in War,
without interruption, and with every emblem and demonstration
of patriotic joy and gratitude.

" In 1859, I spent the 4th of July in the City of Washing-
ton, when, in conversation with a member of Mr. Buchanan's
Cabinet, he remarked, with the twang and the peculiarity of

THE CELEBRATION. 79

emphasis which used to mark the conversation of the apostles
and leaders of incipient treason : ' You Yankees are a singular
people.' To which I gladly seized the occasion of replying :
' Indeed, we are, sir. In Boston, the metropolis of Yankee-
dom, this very Anniversary of American Liberty has been
ushered in by a chorus of bells and of cannon. It is kept by
our people as the " Sabbath day of Freedom." By processions,
civic and military ; by solemn praise, and by a patriotic oration
in the presence of the authorities and fathers of the city ; by
a cheerful reunion of the representatives of the people and of
every branch of the public service around the hospitable board
where the Mayor in person presides ; by festivities and games
for children of every class ; by sun-down guns and evening
fireworks, attracting the whole population of Eastern Massa-
chusetts, — by all these and by a universal holiday, these " singu-
lar Yankees " are remembering and celebrating this day. While
here, at the seat of the Federal Government, I perceive only a
few colored children of the Sunday schools marching in proces-
sion, alone and almost without human sympathy. I hope to
see the day when something of our singularity may strike as
high as the City of Washington.'

" He did not pursue the discussion. Since then I have
thought, oh, how often ! of the poor little colored girls and
boys, guarding as it were the few coals on that which should
have been the high altar, and which have at last flamed up,
with ample blaze, wafting to heaven the fragrant incense of a
sublime devotion.

' ' Let these ' singular Yankees ' continue to be faithful to the
ancient traditions. Let Boston assume and keep, if need be.

80 THE CELEBRATION.

in the lead of every true thought, of every noble purpose, and
let the institutions and ideas which distinguish the people of
New England be commended to every State and every section,
until liberty shall be equally enjoyed by all the citizeps of the
Union in impartial participation.

"I have the honor to be, faithfully and respectfully, your
friend and servant,

"JOHN A. ANDEEW."

" It pleased His Excellency, Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens,
to ask me, after reading this letter, to make a few remarks of
my own. But, sir, what can a man do who comes after the
king, and what can I say that will add force or pertinence to
the thoughts which I have just read ? I am sure, fellow-citizens,
our hearts must all sympathize with the spirit of this letter. The
testimony which it bears to the extent and thoroughness, the
constancy, the hearty and patriotic spirit with which the City of
Boston at all times, in peace and in war, with every generation
and without interruption, has celebrated the return of this Anni-
versary of American Independence, — that testimony is true,
and for one I rejoice that Governor Andrew embraced the op-
portunity and had the courage to pour that testimony into the
ears of the member of the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan to whom
he referred. Had he poured it into the ears and the heart of
the Chief of that Cabinet, he would not have done any harm.
(Applause.)

" It is to the glory of this city, — a glory which finds its re-
flection and its counterpart throughout Massachusetts and New
England, — that, feeling the deep significance and importance of

THE CELEBRATION. 81

the grand truths enunciated in the Declaration of Independence,
and reiterated in spirit in the preamble to the Constitution of
the United States, the people of Boston have always celebrated
the return of this day with various grateful demonstrations ; and
it is because they have thus celebrated it, that they can cele-
brate and have a right to celebrate it to-day with an unusual
display of patriotic pride and joy. Mr. Mayor, if there is a
man in this assembly whose heart does not beat with a deeper
throb of patriotic pride than ever before on the 4th of July, I
pity him. (Applause and ' Good.') But there is no such man
among you. I have done you injustice in supposing that it
could be so, because we celebrate this day this year under the
most grand and auspicious circumstances.

." We celebrate not simply our National Independence, but
our National deliverance and regeneration. We celebrate the ter-
mination of a four years' civil war unparalleled in the magnitude
of its operations, and in the transcendent importance of its
issues. (Applause.) We celebrate the extinction of that
which was the darkest blot upon our escutcheon ; we celebrate
the overthrow of a rebellion the most gigantic that ever threat-
ened the life of a nation and failed of success, — a rebellion so
gigantic, so wide spread, so deep laid in its plans, so mighty in
its power and so determined in its purpose, that only a free
government and a free people could have triumphed over it.
(Long and continued applause.) I am reminded by the ex-
tinction of that rebellion, Mr. Mayor, and by all the desolation
it has spread in the States where it existed, of some strong and
striking words uttered more than thirty years ago by Edward
Everett, whose spirit is with us this day, whose image is in all
11

83 THE CELEBRATION.

our hearts. Oli, would that he was present with his magic voice
to utter the words of eloquence and power which this occasion
would call from his lips ! In 1833 he delivered the 4th of July
oration at Worcester. It was just after General Jackson, sup-
ported by the irresistible logic, the broad statesmanship, and the
niiohty power of Daniel Webster, had put down nullification in
South Carolina (Applause) , ' scotched the serpent but not killed
It.' Mr. Everett's oration, therefore, was largely occupied with
the value and importance of Union ; and therefore he said :
' I would not have it supposed that I think the Union is of
special value and importance to the people of this section of the
country. The intimation which has been thrown out, the belief
which has been in some quarters avovfed that the Northern
States have a peculiar interest in the preservation of the Union,
— that they derive advantages from it at the uncompensated
expense of the South, — is the greatest delusion that was ever
propagated by men deceived themselves, or disposed to deceive
others. All parts of the Union would suffer deplorably from
the dissolution of it, but the bitter chalice would not be pre-
sented first to our lips. The people of the North would suffer
from the dissolution of the Union, but they would be the last to
suffer and they would suffer least, while that portion of the
country that Is continually shaking over us the menace of disso-.
lution would be swept with the besom of destruction the moment
an offended Providence permitted that ill-starred purpose to
reach to maturity.' (Applause.) Sir, these words, which I
quote from memory, but I believe quite correctly, uttered more
than thirty years ago by the scholar, 'he statesman, the orator
who did so much by his moderation and forbearance to prevent

THE CELEBRATION. 83

the late rupture, and who, when that rupture came, stood firm
in a manly loyalty, and did good and noble service for the
Union, — these words now come up before us as a prophecy
awfully fulfilled. The desolate plantations, the ruined towns
and villages, the multitude of battle fields, the whole scene
throughout that whole region of country from the Potomac to
the Mississippi, bears testimony that the bitter chalice has not
been held to our lips, but to the lips of those who undertook to
overthrow our Government.

"Mr. Mayor, our country began with God. Our fathers
planted the first germs of our civilization in a spirit of Christian
faith, amid sacrifices and tears, and from that hour, all
through our history, the providence of God has b'een marvel-
lously displayed in our growth, preservation, and national de-
velopment, and more marvellously than all in the way in which
that providence has led us on, and led us through this great
struggle with a glorious triumph of liberty, a better, larger, and
more established freedom. And this day and every day, our
thought should first mount up in gratitude and adoration to the
God of our fathers for all that goodness to them and to us and
to our country under which we meet together here to-day.
(Applause.) And next to God and under his Providence, our
thoughts should go forth in honor, in admiration, in reverence
and in gratitude to the noble defenders of our country and its
liberties (loud applause) , to all those of every rank, high and
low, who took their lives in their hands and went forth to fight
for the dear old flag, ' The Stars and the Stripes ;' and who
have so fought for it, that now with a fresh glory around it,
with the power of a free people still slumbering in its folds, it

84 THE CELEBRATION.

floats undisturbed over the land, waves its protection and its
powder alike over an unbroken Union, an undivided country.
(Loud applause.) And I rejoice, sir, I sympathize with you
and with all my fellow-citizens, that it is permitted us this day
to behold the faces of two of these noble and gallant defenders.
(Tremendous applause.)

' ' I thank God that I have an opportunity to look into the face
and to cry honor to the man who in those gloomy days in the
Spring of 1861 stood there at Fort Sumter alone, as it were,
unaided, unreached, undirected even by his Government, stood
there firm and resolute in the difficult duty of forbearance and
inaction so long as they were his duty, — brave and resolute in
resistance when the hour for resistance came, and continued
that resistance so long as seventy half-starved men could fight
against ten thousand. (Tremendous applause and three cheers
for General Anderson.)

"And I thank God, sir, that it is permitted me and my
fellow-citizens to look upon the face, to welcome to our liearts
and our homes, to our city and to this old Cradle of Liberty,
and to cry honor to the man who has written a new and
brilliant chapter In the history of naval warfare (tremendous
applause) , — a chapter fit to succeed those that tell of the ex-
ploits of Perry and McDonough, of Hull and Morris, of Preble
and Decatur, and many others that I might mention, and who
has so written that new and brilliant chapter in naval history,
that when it comes to be thoroughly read and understood, the
halo of glory that gilds the names of Nelson and Trafalgar will
grow pale before the grander glory that shall gather, in every
American heart, around the names of Farragut and Mobile.
("Thundering cheers, the company all rising.)

THE CELEBRATION. 85

" Mr. Mayor, I have spoken much too long. I will stop. I
will crush down a great many thoughts that swell in my heart
for utterance, — thoughts connected with our martyred President
and his noble character, — thoughts connected with the memory
of our noble dead of this State and of every State, the pride
and flower of the nation, — thoughts connected with the diffi-
culties and the glories that encompass this nation in its present
condition and prospects, with the great moral and physical
power it is to become in the world if true to itself, its opportu-
nities, and its principles. I feel much and deeply upon all these
topics, Mr. Mayor, and I should like to talk about them, but I
will crush them all down and say, in conclusion, that while I
honor the Union, while I cleave to it and will cling to it to the
death, while I am ready to maintain it at all hazards and at
every cost, I honor Old Massachusetts as a glorious part of this
Union. (Applause.)

" I honor it for what it has done for itself. I honor it for
what it has done for the Union, — for all the thoughts, influences,
and actions which it has sent out into the Union, and I am
ready to conclude and to agree with the Governor in saying, let
these singular Yankees continue faithful to the traditions. Let
Boston assume, and if need be take the lead in every true
thought and in every right purpose ; and let the institutions and
the ideas which distinguish the people of New England be
commended to every State and every section until liberty is
universally enjoyed by every citizen of the Union in impartial
participation. The ideas and institutions of New England are
only two, — a common school in every hamlet, and a church in
every village. (Applause.) Let these institutions go forth,

86 THE CELEBRATION .

let there be intellectual and moral culture everywhere for all ,
and then the wider our freedom, the greater our glory, the more
secure our safety." (Loud applause.)

At the close of Dr. Lothrop's remarks. His Honor the Mayor
stated that an emblem of peace lay concealed among the
flowers upon the table, and releasing a dove from its confine-
ment, the bird made a circling flight, and perched upon the
gilded eagle surmounting the picture of the Webster and Hayne
debate. The episode excited hearty applause.

The next sentiment given was, — " The Memory of Abraham
Lincoln," which was received by the company, standing and in
silence, the band playing a dirge.

The Mayor then introduced to the company. Brevet Major
General Robert Anderson, with a few complimentary remarks.
He alluded to the fact that, notwithstanding the pressure
brought to bear upon him, in consequence of his Southern birth,
to desert his flag, he remained steadfast to the Union, and by
his heroic defence of Sumter, though apparently defeated,
really united and fixed the loyal sentiment of the country.

Gen. Anderson was received with a round of cheers, and
spoke as follows : —

'" My Friends : You must not expect a speech from me.
Retired from the army, after a consultation with a board of
physicians, on a declaration of my doctors that my brain had
been over-taxed, and that I would never be fit again for duty,
I have, since that time, been prohibited from attempting to
make a speech.

THE CELEBRATION. 87

"lam Indebted to Massachusetts for many things; and,
before I sit down, I will simply remark that the first letter I
received in Fort Moultrie, before I went to Fort Sumter,
when it was found that things were looking very threatening, —
(I felt the storm there long before you saw the flash here) , —
I received a letter from a gentleman (I am sorry I don't re-
member his mxme) , a militia officer of this city, offering me
troops from Massachusetts if the Government would then allow
them to be sent to me.* (Applause.)

" Gentlemen, after what I have said, you will excuse me
from attempting to make any further remarks. I thank you
from the bottom of my heart for the kind reception you have
given me in this noble, this great Hall, on this grand occasion.
We have a country again, and, thank God ! we have a country
of which we can all be proud. (Applause.)

" Our country has passed through a storm such as no other
country ever passed through or was threatened with before.
Let us give to God thanks for the victory which our troops by
His blessing have been enabled to win for us." (Applause.)

The Mayor then presented to the company Vice-Admiral
David G. Farragut, remarking that the City was extremely
fortunate in having for its guest such eminent representatives
of the Army and Navy. The great events in the brilliant
career of Admiral Farragut were already as familiar and dear
to American hearts as " household words."

* At the reception given by Gen. Anderson and Admiral Earragut, to the
citizens of Boston, in Faneuil Hall, on the next day (July 5) Brig. Gen. Ed-
ward W. Hints was introduced to Gen. Anderson as the officer who sent the
letter alluded to.

88 THE CELEBRATION.

The Admiral was received most enthusiastically, and after
the restoration of silence, spoke as follows : —

" ]Me. Mayor and Gentlemen : In the first place I don't
really know what I could say. These gentlemen have already
gone over the ground. The first speaker gave us a synopsis of
the war ; the next eulogized it, and I really feel that I have
nothing left but to talk about myself which would be a most un-
profitable thing both to you and me. (" Go on.") It has
simply been my good fortune to be associated with many Massa-
chusetts troops during the war, and it gives me great pleasure to
testify to their good conduct ; and it has always given me great
pleasure and satisfaction in every instance where we have
worked together, that we have always worked in harmony and
in good faith with one another. I am extremely obliged to you
for this reception, and it is a most happy circumstance that I,
— after having left this port nearly fifty years ago, as the
Mayor said (I was then a little midshipman) , — should return here
as Yice-Admiral on this great and grand occasion, the 4th of
July, after a peace which I predicted a year ago last June
would soon come, — and should be greeted by you for that which
you conceive to have been my great exertions during the war to
bring about that peace.'' (Applause.)

The Mayor then proposed, — " The Orator of the day. He
has said the right thing, in the right way, and in the right place.''

Rev. Mr. Manning expressed his thanks for the honor con-
fered upon him, and for the complimentary sentiment given by
the Mayor, but excused himself from making any remarks.

THE CELEBRATION. 89

In the absence of Col. Wm. S. King, who was expected to
respond to "The Citizen Soldiery of Massachusetts," Mayor
Lincoln called upon Col. P. E. Guiney, late of the Ninth Mass.
Volunteers.

Col. Guiney said that " he regretted Col. King's absence, as
he considered him a true and eloquent representative of the
Citizen Soldiers, but there was some compensation in the fact
that we had with us the great Admiral, who might be called
the Ki7ig of the seas. These are the only sort of Kings that
will take root on this continent.

' ' For two reasons it is unnecessary to say much about the
citizen soldiers of Massachusetts. They arc content that the
honors and enthusiasm of this occasion should be absorbed by
the two illustrious heroes whose presence gives such charm
and force to our festivities, and who are so deeply loved by
every soldier of our State. Then it is not necessary to say
much about Massachusetts soldiers. Words used in their
praise, unless very carefully selected, would be apt to detract
from, rather than to enhance the idea of their real merit. In-
deed, every battle-field of our country, as well as the slaughter
prison-houses of the South, — wherever endurance, heroism, and
devotion to the Eepublic were required, — gave testimony that
the deeds of our citizen soldiery, baffled and conquered two
things, rhetoric and the enemy. The latter has not recovered
yet.

" To be brief, then : in war, the citizen soldiers of Massachu-
setts are the unrelenting foes of all who assail our flag or our
liberties ; in peace, in politics, they are inclined to think that
liberty has been long enough regulated and proscribed by law.

90 THE CELEBRATION.

and that it is now time to recognize it as a first principle, that
law should be regulated by that liberty which was anterior to
it, and which it never could rightfully crush or impair."

The Mayor then gave, — "The loyal women of America,"
which was responded to by Mr. Charles W. Slack, who said : —

"Me. Mayor and Gentlemen: It is most fitting that
these festive exercises should not close without an apprecia-
tive word for the women of America.

' ' ' The loyal women of America ! ' — how sweetly floats in
that phrase, with the glad rejoicings. of this national birthday,
the crowding remembrances of this more than hallowed an-
niversary ! Amid the salvos of artillery, the pealing of
bells, the gayly waving colors, the honors to brave men,
minsrlins in the festivities of this Ancient Hall, and lending
transcendent merit to the public rejoicings .of this day the
continent over, come precious thoughts of the labors and
prayers of the loyal, queenly women of America, through all
the struggles and anxieties of the great contest now happily
passed. They deserve our heartiest, truest thanks. From
the full well of individual and national gratitude must they
ever be permitted to draw unstinted draughts.

"From every rank, class, and condition, — the poor girl
picking berries by the roadside, that, converted into money,
might help ; the aged matron, late into the night, finishing
off the comforting sock for the distant volunteer ; the wealthy
lady of the city giving her thirtieth, or more, monthly con-
tribution, — ay! from the humble black slavewoman of the
South, whose heart welcomed and whose cake nourished our

THE CELEBRATION. 91

exhausted boys flying from the charnel-houses, of Rebel de-
tention, to those magnificent parliaments of accomplished
womanhood all over the land that inaugurated soldiers' fairs,
and sailors' homes, — how cheerfully, how nobly came the
requisite help,-;- the patient, confident, untiring labor, — that
now throws such a halo around the nation's triumphs by land
and sea !

" We cannot forget the women of America if we would I
When the brilliant record of this war shall be fully made up,
with the deeds of heroic men, the skill of counsellors, and
the steadfast devotion of the citizen, will be mentioned in
glowing page and sympathetic verse those quieter and gen-
tler, it may be, but no less valuable and welcome, labors of
the loyal women of our land. Indeed, that the oldtime
nationality of our flag, the maintenance of our institutions,
and the perpetuity of the Republic, are as much owing to the
unwearied efibrts and influence of the women, in camp, hos-
pital, and at home, as to heroism on the field or shipboard,
is a belief that many entertain, and which has often been ex-
pressed. Accepting this thought, may we now, in the twi-
light hour of this festal day, with the music of bells and
cannon in parting salute honoring this doubly endeared anni-
versary, pass from this Hall with sincere ascription to God In
heart and upon lip, as we remember with gratitude and joy
the services of ' The loyal -women of America ! ' "

BGs Honor then proposed as the final sentiment, "The
Declaration of Independence," to which Mr. Charles Harris
Phelps eloquently responded as follows : —

92 THE CELEBRATION.

' ' Mk. Mayor and Gentlemen : It would be improper
and out of place in me, indebted as I am to my position for the
privilege of being called upon, to presume to eulogize or to
praise the Declaration of Independence. No words of mine
can add to its fame or increase its renown. But as I stood in
the Music Hall, and read the inscription, ' Our brave men have
preserved our Union,' I could not but feel how weakly and
with how little meaning its glowing words were being read,
compared to the significance which Anderson gave it as he read
it to Eebeldom by the thunders of Sumter's cannon, — compared
to the meaning which Farragut gave it by his double -shotted
broadsides in the harbor of Mobile (applause) , — to the mean-
ing given it by a million of bayonets under Grrant and Sherman
and Sheridan, as they read it on every battle-field of the South
with the emphasis of resounding arms and salvos of artillery.
(Loud applause.)

"These heroes, illustrious through all time, whose fame
shall be sounded in every tongue, have, during the past four
years, declared that ' all men are created equal,' in such a
manner that all traitors have trembled and all nations rejoiced.
But it is not for me to trespass further upon your patience,
neither is the occasion nor the theme from my humble lips, and
I only ask your permission to offer a toast to

" ' Our gallant Army and Navy — The best readers of the
Declaration of Independence, they have sent it in thunder-tones
to all the world. Let the oppressed of every nation hear and
take courage.' "

The benediction was then pronounced by Rev. Mr. Manning.

THE CELEBRATION. 93

THE REGATTA

M^as appointed to take place on Charles River in, the
morning at 8 o'clock, that being the hour of high tide. An
immense assemblage was present, and from the numerous
entries, it was expected that the races would be unusually in-
teresting and exciting. Unfortunately, however, the wind
rose before the conclusion of the first race so as to make it
dangerous for the light shell-boats to attempt to go over the
course, and it was found necessary to put oflf the race to a
later hour in the day, the people being notified, as far as
practicable, of the postponement.

The first race was for single scull oarsmen, there being
seven entries. The principal contest, however, was between
James Hammill, of Pittsburg, Pa., champion oarsman of
America, and John H. Eadford of New York, who has won
several races ; and although the latter obtained a consider-
able lead at the start, he was soon passed by Hammill, who
won easily. The others, finding it useless to contend, drew
out before completipg the first mile.

The next race was for four-oared boats, the prizes offered
being larger than usual ; and though there were four boats
entered, but two appeared to contend. These were the fa-
mous "Geo. L. Brown Crew," of New York, so often
successful in these waters, and the " Geo. B. McClellan
Crew," of Boston and St. John. The distance being six
miles, an opportunity was afforded the spectators to see a
turn at the lower stake, but as the "Brown" crew, in their
new boat, the "Samuel Collyer," were well ahead and ap-

94 THE CELEBRATION.

peared to be winning easily, the excitement was not wrought
to a very high pitch.

The third race was for double sculls, and was won easily
by John Hammill and William Jackson, of Pittsburg, a boat
rowed by McKee and Daily, of Boston being second. A
boat from Harvard College, the "Winona," was well up
with the winner at the stake, but the wind having freshened,
they shipped a good deal of water and were compelled to
abandon the struggle.

The evening was now pretty well advanced, and there re-
mained on the programme a race for six-oared boats, for which
were entered the "P. L. Tucker," of New York (rowed by
the " Brown Crew"), and two Harvard College boats. The
weather had, however, become so unpropitious, that the Har-
vard boys did not feel safe to row. So there could be no race.
EiForts were made to induce the boats to row the next day, but
the New York party were anxious to return home, and the
matter was dropped.

The following is a summary of the races : —

First Race, for single sculls and wherries : distance two miles.

James Hammill, of Pittsburg. Time, 16 min. 28^- sec.
First Prize, $ 100.

John H. Eadford, of New York. Time, 16 min. 38 sec.
Second Prize, $ 50.

T. M. Doyle, of Boston. Time not taken.

Jere DriscoU, of Boston. Time not taken.

THE CELEBRATION. 95

Second Race: for four-oared boats : distance six miles.

" Samuel Collyer," rowed by James H. Biglin, John A.
Biglin, Bernard Biglin, and D. Leary, of New York. Time
43 min. 32 sec. First Prize $400.

"George B. McClellan," rowed by John Morris, of St.
Johns, and George Faulkner, John Lambert, and Thomas
Scott, of Boston. Time, 43 min. 47 sec. According to the
Rules no Second Prize was awarded.

TTiird Eace : for double scull boats : distance two miles.

<' Sam Collins," rowed by John Hammill, and Wilham
Jackson, of Pittsburg. Time, 17 min. 54 sec. First Prize
$100.

" Voyageur," rowed by A. McKee, and J. Daily of Boston.
Time, 18 min. 4 sec. Second Prize $ 50.

" Winona," rowed by C. E. Hubbard and S. E. Holdredge,
of Cambridge.

"J. Hancon," rowed by J. DriscoU and J. Donahue, of
Boston.

Fourth Race : for six-oared boats : distance three miles.
"P. L. Tucker," entered by the Biglin Brothers, Leary,
Eckerson, and Burns, of New York.

" Harvard," entered by the University Crew of Cambridge.
" 68," entered by the Freshman Class of Harvard College.
This race could not take place on account of the rough water.

THE BALLOON ASCENSIONS.
Owino' to the strong westerly wind which prevailed, Prof.
Kino- considered it inexpedient as well as unsafe to inflate either

96 THE CELEBRATION.

of his balloons and attempt ascensions, either alone or with
companions. Consequently no ascension was made from the
Common, greatly to the disappointment of the thousands pres-
ent. On the Saturday following the two balloons were sent up
successfully, and made very pleasant voyages ; one to Melrose,
and the other to Scituate.

THE FIREWOEKS.

The display of fireworks in the evening, was furnished by C.
E. Masten, of Roxbury. Some of the principal pieces were
very good. The piece constituting the grand finale was
partially destroyed, the framework having been blown over by
a sudden squall of wind in the early part of the evening.
The line pieces, however, with that portion where a salvo of
artillery is heard, and two gunboats, one upon either hand,
bearing the names of " Farragut " and "Porter," move from
left to right, the batteries firing a national salute, was pre-
served and made a fine closing display. The fireworks at East
and South Boston passed ofiT successfully.

CORRESPONDENCE.

COERESPOSDENCE,

The following were among the responses received to the in-
vitations to participate in the Celebration : —

Teeasuet Department, June 15, 18C5.

Dear Sir : Your favor of the 8th inst. is received. I
spent some of my early and happiest days in Boston ; I feel
that I have a right, therefore, almost to claim to be one of her
citizens ; and am proud that she has not only maintained her
Eevolutionary reputation, but added largely to it by her de-
votion to the country in the great conflict now brought to a
glorious termination by the utter overthrow of the Rebellion,
which, for the past four years, has been threatening the
existence of the Union.

I am gratified to learn that it is the intention of her citi-
zens to celebrate the approaching Fourth of July with unusual
ceremony. Nothing but imperative official engagements will
prevent me from accepting your kind invitation to be present
with you on this interesting occasion.

100 CORUESPONDENCE.

Please accept my thanks for the honor you have done me,
and believe me to be,

Very truly yours,

HUGH Mcculloch.

Hon. F. W. Lincoln, Je. Mayor of Boston, Mass.

Washingtok, July 1, 1865.

Dear Sir : I am honored by your invitation to partake
of the hospitality of the City of Boston, and unite with
you in celebrating the approaching Anniversary of the De-
claration of Independence.

It is gratifying to witness the arrangements which are being
made throughout the country the present year for the general
observance of this anniversary, which, during our civil troubles
has been, to some extent, neglected. May we not hope that
the successful termination of the war for the Union will de-
stroy that sectional animosity which prevailed for a period,
and restore harmony and good will among our countrymen?
The disturbing element in our national affairs havins; been
removed, there is now no cause or pretext for alienation.
Hereafter the States will act on terms of more perfect equality,
and as long as each shall discharge its appropriate duties
and respect the right of others, each and all of them sustain-
ing in good faith the Federal Government in the exercise of
its authority, no serious dissension can exist, and our national
unity will be preserved and strengthened.

Under the benignant auspices of peace and union, the
approaching National Anniversary should be universally com-
memorated.

CORRESPONDENCE. 101

Boston, with her Eevolutionary history, her patriotic tradi-
tions, and her intelligent loyalty, will, I doubt not, observe
the day in a manner worthy of her ancient renown. My
engagements are such, however, that I shall be compelled to
deny myself the pleasure of partaking of the hospitality to
which you have invited me, and of uniting with you in your
celebration. I have the honor to be,

Very respectfully,

GIDEON WELLES.
Hon. F. "W. Lincoln, Je. Mayor of Boston.

Boston, July 1, 1865.

Mt dear Sir : It will not be in my power to unite with
my fellow-citizens of Boston in celebrating the Anniversary of
our National Independence ; but I rejoice that we can cele-
brate so happily, with Victory as the mistress of ceremonies.

Do not, I pray you, Mr. Mayor, let the great day pass
without reminding our fellow-citizens that victory on the field
of battle is not enough. There must be that further victory
which will be found in the recognition everywhere in the
country of the ideas of the Declaration of Independence. All
must confess that, according to these ideas, there can be no
republican government, which is not founded on " the consent
of the governed " and the equality of all persons before
the law. And all must dedicate themselves to the work of
establishing these ideas.

Then will our Fathers be vindicated and our country be
glorified. God save the Republic!

102 CORRESPONDKNCE.

Accept my thanks for the invitation with which you have
honored me. Apd believe me, dear sir,

Faithfully yours,

CHARLES SUMNER.

The Mayor of Boston.

To His Honor, Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayor of
the City of Boston : —

Dear Sir: I beg leave to express, through you, to the
Committee on Invitations of the City Council of Boston, my
very grateful acknowledgments for the honor of their invita-
tion to unite with them in the celebration of the approaching
Anniversary of American Independence. The public obser-
vance of the day, by the municipal authorities, and my more
immediate fellow-citizens, of this city, seems to dictate the
greater propriety of my remaining here ; but, whether here or
there, my sentiments and sympathies will be with the joyous
commemoration of the occasion. Every loyal heart must
ahke swell with gratitude, in recognition of the glorious tri-
umphs of the past, and in the better hopes, assurances, and
safeguards, which peace now brings to a sustained Government,
a restored Union, and a gallant, patriotic, and free people.

I have the honor to be, sir, with the most respectful regard,
Your obliged and obedient servant,

LEVI LINCOLN.

WoKCESTEK, June 30, 1865.

CORRESPONDENCE. 103

New Yokk, June 14, 1865.

Hon. F. W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayor of Boston : —

Dear Sir : I have just received your letter of yesterday,
inviting me to be present at the proposed observance, by your
City, of the approaching Anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence.

The occasion, the place, and the time, all concur to make me
deeply regret that engagements here render the acceptance of
your kind invitation impossible. I can only express my cordial
sympathy with your determination to give the ceremonies " a
more imposing character than usual." It is right that the
country, which has just put down, by courage and self-sacrifice,
the most gigantic treason the world has ever witnessed, should
make a demonstration of its thankfulness, which shall corre-
spond with the magnitude of the perils it has escaped ; and It is
eminently appropi-iate that among the foremost to give utter-
ance to the sentiments the surrounding circumstances are cal-
culated to inspire should be your city, which was among the
most efficient in establishing our Independence, and which has
labored with such patriotic zeal and unswerving resolution to
maintain the Union of the States.

Very truly yours,

JOHN A. DIX.

Head-Quartees Aemt of the
Potomac, June 22, 1865.

To THE Hon. F. W- Lincoln, Jr. Mayor of Boston, Mass.

Dear Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your polite letter of the 18th inst. , inviting me to Boston on the

104 CORRESPONDENCE.

aj)proaching Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence ;
and to express my great regret, that, owing to a prior engage-
ment to visit Gettysburg, it will not be in my power to acce2:)t
your invitation. It would afford me much pleasure to visit
Boston, a city so distinguished during this great war for its
patriotism, illustrated by the valor of so many of its citizens
on fields where I have had the honor to command, and I trust
I shall have this gratification before the summer has passed.

In the mean time, I beg you will accept my thanks for the
compliment you have honored me with, and believe me to be,
with sincere respect,

Your most obedient servant,

GEO. G. MEADE,

Maj. Gen. U. S. A.

Wae Depaetment, Adjutant-General's Office,
Washington, Ju?ie 26, 1865.

His Honoe F. W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayor of Boston, and others

of Committee on Invitations.

Gentlemen : I have had the honor to receive your invitation
to unite with the City Council of Boston in celebrating the
approaching Anniversary of the Declaration of American In-
dependence.

I regret that reasons of a public character will prevent my
Ijeing absent at this time from Washington, but assure you
that nothing could more gratify me than to be present in my
native city on this most interesting occasion, when it would
seem an unusual significance will attach to our National Anni-
versary, when we may on that day proclaim to the world that

CORRESPONDENCE. 1 05

our form of Government is no longer an " Experiment," but

a thing thoroughly tried and established.

With great respect and esteem, I have the honor to be,

Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Asst. Adj. Gen. U. S. A.

Washington, June 29, 1865.

To THE Mayor and City Council or Boston : —

Gentlemen : I duly appreciate the honor of your invita-
tion to unite with you in celebrating the approaching Anniver-
sary of the Declaration of American Independence, and regret
that previous engagements will probably deprive me of that
great pleasure.

It is the first occasion of the kind on which the country
stands before the world, having made good the first pledge of
our Constitution. We are indeed a Nation of Freemen.

To that end we have not spared treasure, nor lives far be-
yond price.

One great question remains, but that will be worked out
in the appointed time by the wisdom of our people, so that
justice shall be done to all.

In these results your noble city has borne her full part. It
was a regiment of your citizens that made its way to thf
Capital in that anxious hour when only a handful of men, of
which I was one, had gathered about the Government of
the Union. The massive array of that legion, as it moved
along the avenue gave an assurance that cheered every heart.

106 CORKESPONDENCE.

On anothei- occasion I was present when the 54th rushed
upon the parapets of Wagner. Many brave men laid down
life there, but none more lamented than the gallant Colonel
Shaw.

For every day of the last four years I have given my
most earnest efforts to the great cause. One of my sons can
say as much, and among other results participated at VIcksburg
and Fort Fisher. Another only ceased when life was spent,
in an attempt to free our captive soldiers from the dungeons of
Richmond. So that aU of my name that could bear arms,
were at their posts.

With my best wishes for the prosperity of the City of Bos-
ton, I have the honor to be,

Your obedient servant,

J. A. DAHLGEEN,
Rear-Admiral U. S. Navy.

New Yokk, June 29, 1865.
Gentlemen : Your circular of invitation, enclosing a
ticket to the City of Boston 89th Anniversary Celebration of
the American Independence, was duly received.

To participate in such a celebration in the old Cradle of
Liberty, at such a time, would afford me an extraordinary
pleasure; of which I shall be deprived by the Inexorable
commands of duty. But I join with you, and all true friends
of freedom and justice, in heartfelt thanks to the all-bounteous
Giver of all good, for having brought this nation out of its
late peril, and in imploring Him "who maketh to be of one

CORRESPONDENCE. 107

mind the people of a city," to keep this great Eepubllc one
and indivisible now and forever.
Yours truly,

W. S. EOSECRANS, Major- General.
To F. W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayor, and others of Committee,
Boston, Mass.

Engineer's Office, Befences of Boston Hakeok,

July 1, 1865.

Hon. F. W. Lincoln, Jr. Mayor of Boston : —

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt last
evening of the invitation of the authorities of this city to be
present at their celebration of the coming 4th of July. And
though a previous acceptance of another invitation to be
present at an adjoining State celebration, prevents my having
the pleasure of accepting yours, I cannot refrain from the
expression of my congratulations to this principal city of that
State, which, with the governor, has done so much to make
this day of all others so worthy of a grand celebration. For
this is the first 4th of July in all our history that has reaHy
found us a free people ; for, though the chains of Great Brit-
ain have long ago been thrown off, as they were nominally,
upon the first of these great days, it is but now that the shackle
of the slave has fallen, and the political tyranny over the
North has ceased, leaving us for the first time as a people
"born free and equal." God grant that such justice shall
be meted out to the wrong-doers that we shall never be in
their thraldom again.

Very respectfully your obedient servant,

H. W. BENHAM, Brevet Major-General .

108 COKRESPONDENCE.

Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 1865.
Deae Sie : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt
of your invitation to become the guest of the City of Boston
on the approaching 4th of July.

Please accept my thanks for the compliment, and my regret
that I cannot be present, owing to a previous engagement
from the Committee in charge of the celebration at Gettysburg.
As several officers who served under my command in that
battle desire to revisit the field in my company, I do not
feel at liberty to disregard the arrangement already made.

The defence of the flag of the Union in Charleston Har-
bor, at the commencement of the Rebellion, drew its inspira-
tion from the opening scenes of the Eevolution in the vicinity
of Boston. I am glad to learn that Gen. Anderson has
promised to be with you, for I think it peculiarly appropri-
ate that Fort Sumter should do honor to Bunker Hill.
I am sir,

Your obedient servant,

A. DOUBLEDAY,
• Major- General Volunteers.

To His HoNOE, Mayor Lincoln, of Boston, Mass.

ORATION

DELIVEBED BEFORE THE

CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON,

FOURTH OF JULY, 1866,

REV. S. K. LOTHROP, D. D.

TOGETHER WITB

Some Account of the Municipal Celebration of the Ninetieth Anniversary

AMERICAN IKDEPENDENCE.

BOSTON:

ALFRED MUDGE & SOI^, CITY PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREIST.

18 6 6.

CITY OP BOSTON.

In Common Council, July 5, 1866.

Resolved : That the thanks of the City Council are due and
they are hereby tendered to Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, D. D.,
for the eloquent and patriotic Oration delivered by him before
the Municipal Authorities of Boston on the occasion of the
XCth anniversary of the Declaration of American Independ-
ence; and that he be requested to furnish a copy of said
Oration for publication.

Sent up for concurrence.

JOHN C. HAYNES, Pres. pro tern.

Concurred.

In Board, of Aldermen, July 7, 1866.
G. W. MESSINGER, Chairman.

Approved July 7, 1866.

P. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Mayor.

ORATION.

Mr. Mai/or, Gentlemen of the City Council, Friends
and Fellow- Citizens :

My words may be dull, but the occasion has an
eloquence of its own ; my thoughts may be feeble,
but the day clusters with memories, associations and
hopes that should give it power and make it an
insphation to our hearts. Patriotism is an instinct
of humanity. Whether it be amid the snows of Lap-
land or the arid deserts of Arabia, wherever, what-
ever it may be, barren or beautiful, every man
loves his country, and every true man is ready to
live and labor, to toil, sacrifice, sufi"er, and, if
need be, to die for his country. But we, of all
people, should love our country; our patriotism has
so much to sustain it, that it should be not simply
an instinct, but a principle; a deep conviction of
the judgment as well as a warm emotion of the
heart. We have a glorious past, a grand though

troubled present, and a future rich in such hopes

1*

6 JULY 4, 1866.

and promises as never before invited the energies,
or met the honest, pure, noble ambition of any
people. Nay, our patriotism should find its founda-
tion and nourishment in religious faith, — faith in
God, faith ia humanity, and faith in those great
principles of liberty and love, with which Christianity,
for eighteen centuries, has been striving to impreg-
nate the heart of the world, and which, under the
providence of God, have here a grander opportu-
nity for development, expansion and application than
was ever offered them before.

History is the unfolding of God's thought, the de-
velopment of his purpose. Its epochs are the foot-
prints of the Almighty on the sands of time. In
our land, and in all that relates to it, these foot-
prints are so distract and impressive that we must
be infidel indeed, if we do not mark and study
them with reverence and gratitude.

The hand of God in our country, the tokens of
his benignant purpose to protect and advance in it
the interests of Hberty and humanity, is a theme
for whose details volumes would be required; the
few paragraphs of an oration can only sketch the
outline.

It begins with the discovery of America, which
was so wonderfully opportune in time, that we no

ORATION. 7

longer ask why the Western Hemisphere was kept
concealed for so many ages from the Eastern, the
untraveUed waters of the Atlantic rolling between
them. Had the discovery been made a few centuries
earlier, the semi-barbarous institutions and feudalism
of the Old World would have been transplanted in
their vigor to the New, and social America would
have been little more than a reproduction of social
Europe. Had the discovery been delayed a few
centuries, the new ideas and principles in regard
to reUgious and ci'sdl Hberty, government, society,
man, the Gospel ui all its applications, which the
Reformation called forth, would, m all human proba-
bility, have had but a short-lived, struggling exist-
ence. Confined to Europe, they would have been
strangled, crushed, put down and kept down by
those influences of habit and custom, of civil and
ecclesiastical power, which have there opposed their
progress, and so long prevented then- legitimate re-
sults, — the enfranchisement and elevation of humanity.
AVell may we bow in adoring faith before that be-
neficent Providence, which so ordered it, that just
when it was most needed, when the Eeformation
broke the slumbers of Europe and stirred its commu-
nities, as they have never been stkred before, to
intense intellectual, moral and social activity, then

O JULY i, 1866.

this new continent, discovered less than half a century
before, offered to this activity a new and fair field;
and the new ideas and principles, which in Europe,
overborne in the struggle with long established insti-
tutions, and hereditary organizations, forms and
usages, would here have failed to work out any grand
results upon a great scale, found here, on the virgin
soU and comparatively unoccupied territory of this
new world, an opportunity for untrammelled devel-
opment, — a development which for more than two
centuries has steadily increased, giving impulse and
progress to humanity, producing results which form
one of the grandest and most interesting chapters in
the history of our race, and sending back upon the
Old World influences, which have been and will be
more and more salutary and beneficial.

If ever civil and religious liberty, — that boon
which evei7 man craves for himself and every noble
man would accord to others, — if ever that great,
intelligent, responsible freedom, which, through the
gospel and the spuit of the Lord, comes to the
soul of man, is to prevail over the earth, if it
is ever to mamtain a strong foothold among the
nations, it will be because, at the hour of its
utmost need, God gave it opportunity to plant itself
on this new continent, and strike its roots so deep

OBATION. y

that no despotic power could tear them up, no
storm of passion and folly blight the blossoms, or
destroy the fruit of the tree.

Beginning thus with the auspicious time of the dis-
covery of our country, the wonderful workings of a
wise and merciful Providence may be traced all
through the infancy, the growth and progress of every
colony established thereui from Maine to Georgia.
In the planting of the Plymouth colony, — where a
few noble men and high-souled women stepped upon
a low, shapeless rock, against which the waves of
the Atlantic had beaten for centuries, and the world
knew not of it and cared not for it, and by their toils
and tears, their sufferings and sacrifices, made that
rock to become one of the sacred spots of earth,
hallowed by the noblest memories and grandest re-
sults, — there may be more of romance, more of thrill-
ing incident and wonderful achievement, than in that
of some of the others; but these elements so abound
in aU, that, if we have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, our hearts must prompt us to recognize and
adore a divine purpose and providence, wonderfully
manifested in the events connected with the early
settlement and colonization of our country, tUl we
come down to that great epoch in its history, of
which this day is the commemoration.

10 JULY 4, 1866.

Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens, I need not dwell
upon the principles, nor recite the incidents of that
solemn and sublime struggle of our fathers for
uidependence, in the success of which we gather
here at this hour, citizens of this free Common-
wealth, inheritors in this grand republic. These
principles have entered into the education of our
people for generations. These incidents are written
in our histories, taught in our schools, graven upon
our memories, famUiar as household words upon our
lips. But it was a glorious struggle. It was an
appeal to arms, to the God of battles, as necessary
and as justifiable as it was triumphant. That was
not a rebellion, any of whose authors felt con-
strained to acknowledge, that the government from
which they would separate, and so far overthrow,
was the wisest, the best, the most paternal and
beneficent ever instituted. That was not a rebel-
lion whose success was to put limitations upon
liberty, and give extension and a deep, terrible per-
manence to slavery. That was not a rebellion
so utterly without cause, in any grievance endured,
or oppression exercised, that its instigators or authori-
ties never made, and never dared attempt to make,
any public proclamation to the world of the wrongs
they had to redress, of the rights they would vindi-

OBATIOJSr. 11

cate, or of tlie spirit and purpose of the new nation-
ality they would establish. No, it was not such
a rebellion. That grave, calm, solemn document,
which oiu- fathers put forth ninety years ago to-day,
and which has just been so admirably read to us this
morning, — that document, its preliminary utterances,
rightly understood and interpreted, not " glittering
generahties, " but solid, substantial and everlasting
verities, having their foundations in that eternal
justice, which is older than aU institutions, and
anterior to all governments save that of God, — that
document, its recital of facts so true in letter and
spirit, as to defy refutation or denial, — that docu-
ment, which at once assumed and vnll forever hold
its place, as one of the most important historic
documents of the world, the natural and legitimate
child of that Magna Charta of England, which
England violated and trampled upon when she
attempted to oppress and subject us, — that docu-
ment — the Declaration of Independence, vindicates
our fathers to the judgment, whde its successful
maintenance secures to them the admiration and
gratitude of mankind.

It was a glorious struggle, just in its origin,
noble in its purpose, grand in its success, grander
because that success was a triumph over the

12 JTJLr i, 1866.

prowess of England, — the most signal defeat to
her power, the greatest loss to her possessions she
ever sustained. Never, before or since, have any of
her colonies or territorial possessions succeeded in
throwing off her yoke. It has been attempted in
India, in Canada and the West Indies, and the
attempts have failed. Wherever, ia any quarter of
the globe, England gets a foothold, plants her
standard and erects her forts, there she holds on
against aU intruders and against all revolt; and it
is true to-day as of yore — " her drum-beat
follows the sun, and may be heard aU around
the earth." In addition to her large colonial terri-
tories, or in connection with them, she holds
some of the most important and salient points
of the globe in either hemisphere. It is, and
has ever been her policy to seek possession of such,
— a policy which the commercial and political inter-
ests of this country, especially on our Western coast,
and iu the waters of the Pacific Ocean, demand that
our government should withstand by aU just and
honorable means. Twenty-five or thu'ty years ago, it
was supposed that ocean steam - navigation would
cripple the maritime power of England ; but it has
largely increased it, because England alone, — England
to a greater extent than any other nation, — that all

ORATION. 13

but omnipresent power whose centre is London, can
send her merchant or war - steamers into all the
waters of the globe, and everywhere coal at her
own ports, beneath the shadow of her own flag
and the protection of her own guns, — an advantage
she will not fail to hold, to use exclusively for
herself when she needs, — to extend when she can.
It was a glorious struggle, the revolutionary strug-
gle of our fathers, and a signal defeat and loss to
power of Great Britam. But the point, I wish to
make, is the testimony it affords to a benign purpose
on the part of the Divine Providence towards this
land, and the interests and progress of humanity as
connected with it. In the general aspects of the
struggle, there are three particulars worthy of especial
notice in this connection. Fhst, the quick and thor-
ough union of the colonies, when the hoiu- for forci-
ble resistance arrived, and the stern appeal to arms
had to be made. Here were thirteen colonies, three
millions of people, — a sparse population, a vast
territory, with none of the modern facilities for
personal intercourse, the diffusion of information,
or for concert of action. Single, isolated rebellion
on the part of any or all of these colonies would
have been a failure. It would have been speedily
crushed. By a wise foresight our fathers were led

14 JTILT i, 1866.

to provide against this ; and suddenly, through means
whose suggestion and efficacy seem wondei*fuUy provi-
dential, the thirteen became a unit, with a general
Congress, and Ai-ticles of Confederation strong enough
to carry them through as long and severe a struggle,
as liberty ever exacted of her champions.

This point is important in another aspect. No one
of these colonies, in the exercise of individual sover-
eignty, declared itself independent of Great Britain, or
undertook in its own name to be, or to set up a new
nationality on the earth. As colonies they were
subject to Great Britain ; as revolting colonies they
instantly became united, and within eight and forty
hours after the first blow of armed resistance was
struck at Lexington, troops from more than one of
these colonies were acting in concert in the siege of
this city. As colonies uniting in revolt, they passed
into a confederacy of States, and thus made to Eng-
land and to the world their " Declaration of Indepen-
dence;" and from a Confederacy of States they passed
under the Constitution into a Union, not of the States,
but of the people: — "We, the people of the United
States, do ordain and establish this Constitution, which,
with the laws and treaties formed under it, shall be the
supreme law of the land, anything in any State consti-
tution or legislation to the contrary notwithstanding."

OBATION. 15

Not for an hour has any one of these States been
an independent State, universally known and rec-
ognized among the nations in its exercise of the
rights of absolute sovereignty. At first the most
important of these rights vested in Great Britain ;
then they were assumed, I had almost said, rather
than transferred to the Continental Congress ; and
then, by a grand and solemn act of the people, they
were committed to a Federal or National govern-
ment, under the Constitution of the United States.
The most important right of absolute sovereignty
these Colonies or States ever exercised was to part
with that sovereignty, and confer its highest and most
essential attributes upon a central or Federal au-
thority, that by union that might become great, re-
spectable and strong before the world, which, in its
separate parts, would remain insignificant and power-
less. This seems to be the historic fact, — that no
one of these States has ever been an independent,
absolute sovereignty, — and this fact seems to have
an important bearing upon that doctrine of " State
rights" and "the sovereignty of the States" which
since 1798 has been the bane of our internal polit-
ical action. This doctrine Avas the essential germ of
oiu- recent civil war, whose fruits, in this instance.

16 JULY 4, 1866.

that war has crushed, but, as was to be expected,
has not entkely eradicated or destroyed the germ
itself. God forbid that it should have life enough
to revive, and unfold into another rebellion.

The second signal feature, in the revolutionary
struggle of our fathers, was their indomitable energy
and perseverance, amid tremendous discouragements,
at a cost of large sacrifices, painful sufferings and
privations. Here I will not detain you with details,
nor attempt to give you pictures of that, which has
so often been portrayed by the masters of patriotic
eloquence. We all know, that upon any compari-
son of means, men, money, munitions and instru-
mentalities of war of all kinds, the struggle seemed
hopeless at the beginning ; and often and often, at
the end of many a campaign during those seven long
years, the fortunes of our fathers seemed dark and
utterly desperate. But they did not and would not
give it up ; their enthusiasm kindled afresh after
every disaster and defeat; their small resources, often
apparently exhausted, failed not to offer fresh sup-
plies when called for; their bold confronting, year
after year, aU the power and policy of England,
reached at last that sublime, unselfish, indomitable,
moral heroism, which always conquers because it must

oration: 17

conquer, and whicli at length compelled England to
acknoAvledge that the brightest jewel of her crown
was gone, and that these United States were a
po^ver no longer subject to her control.

How shall I speak of the third signal and pro-
vidential feature in that great revolutionary strug-
gle of our fathers'? — their great Leader, wonderful
beyond all comparison in the intellectual and moral
combuiations that formed his character, the Providen-
tial Man, raised up to carry them forward through
transcendent difficulties to a grand success, and adorn
their records with the most glorious and unspotted
name in all human history. Niagara stands alone,
unrivalled among the cataracts of earth, and man
might as well attempt to create it, as by pen or
pencH to give an adequate description or impression
of it. Thus Washington stands so unrivalled in the
combinations of his life, character and career — as
fortunate as he was great, and as good as he was
great and fortunate — that one might as well under-
take to create as to describe him. I shall not
attempt it; but this I may say, that the more I
read history, the more I study biography, the
more I contemplate human nature, and aim to form
correct moral estimates of men, the more the char-
acter of Washington, in its glorious beauty, in the

2*

18 JULY 4, 1866.

august sublimity of its splendid combinations, looms up
before my imagination, my feelings and my judgment,
as the grandest to be found in the authentic records
of oiu- race, save those records, short and simple,
that contain the glorious gospel of the Son of God.

Does any one maintain that in the raising up of
such a man, to be the leader of our fathers in
then- revolutionary straggle, to be the model, guide,
and inspiration in all coming time, to the nev?
development and progress, vphich humanity is
to make on this continent, he sees nothing won-
derfully providential; that in all this struggle, he
finds no special token of a benignant purpose of
the Almighty, in regard to the interests of liberty
and humanity in this land, I can only answer,
that I envy not the coldness or the scepti-
cism of his heart, which seems be wantmg in
the great element of faith, — faith in the invisible,
the spuitual and the eternal, which has ever been
one of the noblest attributes of the noblest minds.
Most persons will recognize, and delight to recognize,
the hand of God in that glorious Revolutionary
struggle of o\ir fathers, whose importance can never
diminish, and the memory of which can never die.
It was the first stern conflict between the despotism
of the Old World and the liberty of the New.

OBATION. 19

In that conflict liberty triumphed, lifting up our
country " from impending servitude to acknowledged
independence ; " and that triumph should stand before
us to-day as " the Lord's doing, marvellous in our
eyes," a testimony to his gracious- purpose to pro-
mote the interests and progress of humanity in our
land, and throughout the world.

And that testimony abides ; it abounds all through
the record of our wonderful prosperity and progress,
since the conclusion of that struggle. The formation
and adoption of the Constitution of the United
States aff"ord an impressive illustration of this. AU
human instruments have something of weakness and
defect, stamping their origin. It is easier to
destroy than to create, to find fault than to make
perfect ; and the Constitution of the United States
never has been, is not now, never wUl be beyond
the reach of objection. But when we calmly review
the state of the country, after the close of the
war of independence; when we contemplate aU the
circumstances of the times, the necessities that re-
quu-ed, and the obstacles that stood in the way of a
stronger government than the old confederacy, all
the diverse rights, uiterests, opinions, prejudices,
that had to be harmonized; then the Constitution
stands before us wonderful in its penetrating and

20 JVLY i, 1866.

comprehensive sagacity, its all-embracing political
wisdom ; an instrument of civil organization and
government so perfect, that could there always
have been found an integrity adequate to its
just, dispassionate and impartial administration, it
would, of necessity, have made the people living
under it as happy and prosperous as the limitations
of earth permit.

Wonderful in its formation, its adoption ulti-
mately by the people of all the States, so different
in character and population, and so widely sev-
ered, is even more wonderful than its formation ;
and when we look at the great general results
produced by this Constitution, observe how imme-
diately it brought prosperity and power, raised our
country from a feeble to a mighty nation, gave it
a name and an influence over all the earth; when
we consider how it has conferred upon many millions
of people such blessings, comforts, privileges, oppor-
tunities, as no government ever conferred before
upon a like number, makmg our land such an
"oasis in the desert" of the world, that for half
a century past, emigrants from other countries have
thronged to it, as they never thronged to any land
before; finding here a security, a happiness, and an
opportunity they could find nowhere else on earth

OSATION. 21

— when we consider these things, the formation
and adoption of the Constitution of the United
States are events so wonderful, so extraordinary
upon any calculation of human probabilities, that
we are justified, nay, constrained to regard them as
such an overriding of Providence, such tokens of
a benignant protection of liberty in this land, that
they shovdd not oidy quicken and invigorate our
patriotism, but give to it something of the sanctity
and power of religious faith.

But aU will admit, probably, that the most impres-
sive evidence and exhibition of an overruling Provi-
dence, in the history of our country, is its present
condition, and the terrible scenes and the great
crisis, through which we have just passed in our
recent civil war.

The origia and responsibility of this war rest not
exclusively with the men of this generation. At long
intervals, years ago, the differing seeds from which
it sprung were planted. The fii'st planting was at
Plymouth in 1620, when our fathers made there
the first permanent lodgement of liberty in the land.
The second, by a singular coincidence, was in the
same year, when a Dutch man-of-war entered James
Kiver, with some Africans on board who were sold
as slaves, and thus, in Vhginia, the first germ of

22 JULY i, 1866.

Slavery took root on Anglo-American soil. The third
planting was in. 1776, when a committee of the
Continental Congress at Philadelphia, with Mr. Jef-
ferson at its head, made that grand declaration, that
" all men " — " all " — had certain inalienable rights,
of which no government could innocently deprive
them. The fourth and last planting was in 1787,
when the Constitution of the United States, that
instrument, so glorious in other respects, under-
took, in singular inconsistency with its Preamble,
to join together, in peaceful fellowship, under
one government. Liberty and Slavery. The thing
was impossible; and in this particular, though
not in its general spirit and purpose, the Con-
stitution was a failure.

A conflict between Liberty and Slavery existing
under one government, among one people, was inevi-
table, " m-epressible." It begun early, it lasted long.
It may be traced all through our national legislation
and policy; and in the legislation of the last twenty
years, there are so many, and such violent and wan-
ton encroachments of Slavery upon Liberty, that one
is almost tempted to think, (though no positive proof
thereof in letters or speeches could be found,) that
the hope, if not the purpose and policy of the lead-
ers and advocates of Slavery, was to goad and drive

OBATION. 23

the North to the initiation of rebellion, that thus
they might place themselves before the world, in the
light of loyal defenders of an existing Government
and Constitution.

Though not disposed to uphold or approve all
that was said and done at the North, I am disposed
to maintain that the admission of Texas, by a
gross and palpable violation of constitutional pro-
visions; the Mexican war, unnecessarily precipitated
upon the country by an invasion of territory of which,
to say the least, it was doubtful whether it belonged
to Texas, and the consequent acquisition of large addi-
tions to the area of slavery ; some of the odious
and arbitrary features unnecessarily introduced into
the Fugitive Slave Bill; the miserably contemptible,
as well as wicked legislation in regard to Kansas,
and finally the repeal of the Missomi Compromise, —
that these were such violations and encroachments
upon the rights, interests and progress of liberty on
this Continent, as, combined, afforded to the free
States a more justifiable cause for revolt, rebellion,
revolution, than the so-called Confederate States can
ever declare and make good before the world.

But the people of the free States would not rebel.
They felt that under a popular representative gov-
ernment, where the will of the people, legitimately

24 JULY 4, 1866.

expressed, is the controlling force that ultimately
accomplishes all that ought to be done, armed
resistance is almost never necessary or justifiable.
Liberty, also, which loves order and obeys law to
the utmost, was willing to bide its time, and trust
its existence and progress to the irresistible logic of
truth and principle. This logic prevailed more and
more, till at length the Republican party was or-
ganized. According to its original platforms, this
party did not propose to disturb slavery where it
existed, but simply to restrict its power and preva-
lence to the hmits it had aheady reached, — limits
whose resources it had not exhausted, but where,
as an industrial institution, it still had room for an
indefijaite expansion.

This party, after one or two defeats, triumphed
in the national election of 1860, and raised Abra-
ham Lincoln to the chief magistracy of the nation.
I need not attempt the eulogy of this man's
character or career. At the instance of our
City Government, this has already been done by
abler hands than mine. That he was a person of
peculiar talents, admirable wisdom, perfect honesty,
and pure, disinterested purpose, wUl, I presume, be
admitted by all. The growing developments of his
personal character while in office, his public policy

ORATION. 25

under circumstances of as deep perplexity, painful
anxiety, and involving issues of as gigantic impor-
tance as ever embarrassed the head of any nation,
and his untimely death at the hand of violence,
makuig him at once the champion and the martyr
of Hberty, these invest his name and fame v^^ith
such attributes of gloom and glory, that we become
at once sad and reverent as we speak of him.
There can be little doubt that as years roll on,
dissipating the mists of passion, and leading to a
clearer appreciation, the historic judgment of the
nation and of the world will lift him up to a
high place among the providential men of the race;
vnll place him near to Washington, as the second
deliverer and Father of his country, — less fortunate
in his personal fate, but thoroughly wise, honest, disin-
terested, patriotic, worthy of our gratitude and our
reverence.

His election was the signal for the weak work
of secession, and the wicked work of rebellion and
revolution, to begin. This work, in its successive
steps, in its widening progress, in its final issue,
abounds with testimonies to the purpose of the
Almighty Providence to protect and advance the
interests of hberty and humanity in our country, and
thereby throughout the world. The very neglects

26 JXJLY 4, 1866.

which, we condemned, the very misfortunes and de-
feats, which five years ago we regretted, have all
contributed to fulfO. this purpose.

There can be no question that during the summer
and autumn of 1860, the President of the United
States, with the mutterings of the coming storm in
his ears, and the shadow of its dark cloud resting
upon the close of his administration, had he listened
to the suggestions of the late Lieutenant-General,
Winfield Scott, — that glorious old soldier, as wise
and patriotic as he was brave, — might have quietly
put all the forts on the Southern coast in such condi-
tion, and so disposed of the military and naval
force of the United States, that secession, like nul-
lification, would have reached only to a paper
ordinance, perhaps not to that, and armed rebellion
would never have raised its bloody hand.

If England m the spring of 1861, instead of being
swift through her Secretary for Foreign Affairs to
speak of the " late " United States, and grant bellig-
erent rights to the rebels, and thus encourage her
people to furnish them with munitions of war and
supplies of all kinds, had, true to her interest and
honor, as well as her professed abhorrence of slavery,
expressed her sympathy with the constitutional gov-
ernment of the United States, and her determina-

OMATION. 27

tion to stand by it in the struggle, there can be no
doubt that the resources of the so-called Confederacy
would have been exhausted at a very early day.

And if, in that first great battle of the conflict at
Bull Run, in July 1861, the Union arms had con-
quered, and we had driven the rebels back to Rich-
mond, or beyond it, to the selection of some other
spot to be its temporary capital, probably hundreds
and hundreds of thousands of persons in the South-
ern States, who up to that hour had hesitated
between rebellion and loyalty, would have decided in
favor of the latter, and the Union sentiment at the
South, feeling secure of protection, would have de-
clared itself so strongly, that the rebellion and its
confederacy would have collapsed before the expira-
tion of its first year.

But this immediate or early suppression of the
rebelUon would have left the nation just where it
was before, — the cause of strife unremoved, una-
bated; it would have stanched the blood, salved
over the wound, but left the virus withm to poison
the system, to work disease and decay, to bring on,
at some other time, in some other form, another
death-struggle for national hberty and life. He, who
presideth over the nations, had a broader and more

28 JULY 4, 1866.

benignant purpose, and His overruling is legibly
written upon the whole course of the conflict.

This conflict, — initiated by the rebel leaders for an
independent confederacy, that should give permanence
and power to slavery, and entered into by the
government of the United States after patient reluc-
tance, originally not to disturb slavery, but to main-
tain its own authority over a territory and people,
who had no sufficient cause for revolt, and whose
obedient allegiance it might rightfully claim, —
this conflict went on, widening the range of its
operations, unfolding more and more distinctly the
good and evil principles, the sources of weakness
and of strength involved in it, and presenting
more and more clearly, also, the issues that
must be reached in order to a permanent peace ;
till at length the way was prepared, opportunity
came, necessity demanded, and the President of the
United States, in the exercise of that august war-
power which the Constitution lodged in his hands,
with all due qualifications and formalities, made the
proclamation emancipating all the slaves in the rebel
States.

This important measure was at fixst received
with regret and surprise by some; but it is now, I

oration: 29

believe, everywhere, at home and abroad, by every
thoughtful person, regarded as just and wise ; officially
a right, and morally a brave and noble act. To have
made that proclamation earlier would have been a
mistake ; to have delayed it longer would have been
a crime, — a crime against the Union whose preserva-
tion demanded, whose Constitution authorized it, — a
crime against liberty and • humanity which so earn-
estly plead for it. Followed as it soon was by the
enlistment of colored troops, and by amendments of
the Constitution abolishing slavery, legitimately passed
by Congress and adopted by the required number
of States, this proclamation may now be regarded
as the thunder-bolt, beneath which the rebel confed-
eracy staggered to its fall, while to us, like the
fiery column to the Israelites of old, it was " a
bm-ning and a shining light," beneath whose guiding
glow the Union, victorious at every point through
its moral as weU as physical strength, with erect
mien and manly confidence, walked forward to a
triumphant peace, to glory and permanence.

Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens: Distance is said
to lend enchantment to the view, but it is also
necessary to give correctness to the vision ; we are
too near to our late civil war to judge of it cor-
rectly in all its events and proportions. In five years

3*

30 JULY 4, 18G6.

we have made a history which, only at the close
of fifty years, can be so fully and accurately written,
as to be in all particulars thoroughly understood
and justly appreciated.

But there are some facts and principles in rela-
tion to it that we can understand, and they are
worthy of a moment's notice. It was at once the
most gigantic ci-vil war on record, — and the
shortest. The Peloponnesian war was virtually a
civil war, corresponding in some particulars to ours.
The States of Greece, represented in the Am-
phictyonic council, were bound together by various
ties of nationality, which would have been closer
and stronger, save that an idea, expressed by a
different word but similar to our idea of State
sovereignty, kept them apart and led to theh ruin,
through a war which, inteiTupted by a short truce,
lasted twenty-seven years. This war was important
in its influence upon the fortunes of Greece, and
upon the civilization and progress of the world;
but in itself it was confined to a territory not much
larger than one of our large States ; and the greatest
number, which either side ever brought into the
field in any one campaign, was sixty thousand men,
and never in any one battle were so many as these
engaged on one side.

ouation. 31

The great civil war, under various leaders with
mingled fortunes, through which Eome passed from
a Eepublic to an Empire, lasted twenty years. In
the first great battle of this struggle, at Pharsalia,
between Csesar and Pompey, the whole number in
both armies, very unequally divided, did not reach
to eighty thousand men; and in its last, at Actium,
between Anthony and Octavius Csesar, though about
one hundred thousand men were assembled on either
side, only a very small portion of these were actually
brought into the conflict. The Eoman Empire at
this time contained three times the population of
the United States ; yet the great military captain,
Julius Cfesar, who for a brief period was master
of it, never commanded in person, at one point, so
many men as were in some of our army corps.
The glorious civil war in England, known as the
" Great Eebellion," by which free constitutional gov-
ernment became the boon of the Anglo-Saxon race
everywhere, lasted seven years ; yet the largest army
that either King or Parliament had in the field
during this struggle did not exceed twenty-five thou-
sand men. Cromwell's broad fame, as a military
commander, rests upon a few battles and campaigns,
conducted in a comparatively small area of territory,
and with a force seldom exceeding twenty thousand

32 JULY 4, 1866.

men, — about as many as served for Sherman's ad-
vance-guard of " bummers " in his grand march
through Georgia and the Carolinas. The combined
armies of Caesar and Pompey, disputing the empire
of the world, were less than the quota which some
of our large States sent into the field in our re-
cent struggle; and this little State of Massachusetts
furnished more troops than Julius Csesar ever com-
manded, more than all Greece brought together in
the long struggle that rent her in pieces ; more than
fought on both sides m the great English Rebellion.
And Avhat is the explanation of this contrast"?
Simply this, I conceive. Ours was a war of the
people and for the people, their liberties and thek
progress against an oligarchy. Even the English
Eebellion, though liberty was promoted by it, was
in a great measure a war of oligarchies, a struggle
between titled and un-titled land owners, for place
and power ; and the great civil wars of the Eoman
triumvhates were wars between oligarchies, struggles
between patrician leaders, who could gather no more
troops than they could pay by plunder, confiscation
and robbery. The long and fatal contest in Greece
was between patrician leaders and States, some of
whom, Athens, for instance, had only sixty thousand
freemen from whom to enlist her soldiers, while

OBATION. 33

she had four hundred thousand slaves, whom' she
did not dare to arm for the contest. Ours, on
the contrary, was a war of and for the people.
Not a war which the government constrained the
people to wage and support, but one which the
people constrained the government to wage for its
own protection and thek liberties, in behalf of a
country which they loved, and of institutions and
principles which they cherished with national pride
and filial reverence. Hence when the call came,
they sprang to arms by the half-million, gloried in
what may be called a self-imposed taxation, and
poured out their blood and treasure without stint,
and thus made it at once the most gigantic and
shortest civil war on record.

We can understand that it was a war of conflicting
ideas and principles, which in its progress unfolded
more and more the character of these principles,
their healthful or baneful influence upon the mind
and heart of man. It was a war between Liberty
and Slavery, the records of which are full of dis-
closures, which teU in behalf of liberty as a grand
ennobling principle, and put a darker and deeper
shadow upon slavery as barbarous and brutahzing.

All war is bad, subjecting men to such evil
influences, that nothing but stern necessity could lead

34 JULY 4, 1866.

a thoughtful man to uphold it; and I do not intend
to urge that all that the government, troops, people
and press of the North did and said, during our recent
struggle, is to be unqualifiedly approved. Undoubt-
edly there are things that we must regret and con-
denm. Nor do I mean to say that there is nothing,
absolutely nothing, in the rebel record that we can
approve ; no acts of courtesy, or nobleness, or mag-
nanimity, such as call forth our admiration even
for a foe. Undoubtedly there are many such. But
there is nothing in our record of which we need
be ashamed ; while there are things in rebel record
which the world will forever condemn. There
is nothing in our record like Belle Isle, the Libby,
AndersonvUle, Sahsbury, Fort Pillow, or Fort Wag-
ner ; nothmg Hke the attempt to fire Northern
cities and bring indiscriminate sufiering, destruc-
tion of property, poverty, death, upon men, women
and children ; nothing which gives the shadow
of a shade of color for such a charge against
any one, as that which the President of the United
States has ventured to bring against the head of
the late Confederate Government, — complicity vsdth
assassination and murder.

Our record is a glorious record in behalf of the
nature, character, and influences of liberty, — glori-

ORATION. 35

ous in the reluctance with which the National
Government unsheathed the sword of war, and
in the spirit in which she used it, — glorious
in the skill and military genius displayed by
our generals, and in the bravery, the sacrifices
and the patriotic devotedness of our troops, and
in their general character and conduct as men as
well as soldiers, — glorious in the general spuit and
action of our people, in theh Sanitary Commissions,
their Christian Commissions, theh Freedmen's Relief
Associations, hi all the noble efforts of the women
of the country, and in the thousand Florence
Nightingales, who, without the meed of world-wide
fame and honor, humbly, quietly, in the self-sacri-
ficing spirit of a loyal patriotism and a womanly
tenderness, went forth to instruct the ignorant in
schools, to nurse the sick and comfort the dymg
in hospitals. Ours is a glorious record ; and not
denying any thing there may be good and glorious
in the record of the Confederacy, so called, the
two records, taken as a whole, hold up to us two
forms, two portraits, drawn, as it were, by an
almighty artist, in hving hneaments, — one Liberty,
an angel of light to benefit and bless, — the other
Slavery, a demon of wrath to curse and destroy,
not so much those upon whom she fastens her

36 JULY 4, 1866.

fetters, as those to whom she grants her privileges
and her power.

The nation and the world needed these por-
traits. They wiU be studied long and much ; their
instruction will be heeded, and their influence felt,
for many centuries. The war was a conflict of
principles ; and the whole exhibition of the con-
flict and its results seem so clear and immediate a
reyelation of the divme wUl and law in regard to
slavery, as to make it absurd to appeal to one or
two obscure passages in the Bible, written in the
infancy of the world, and insist that these are to
be interpreted to the support of slavery as a divine
institution, a declaration of God's eternal purpose,
that a portion of his creatures should forever re-
maia in that unhappy condition.

We can form some conceptions of the misery
and ruin from which this war, successfully prose-
cuted to the preservation of the Union, has saved
us. These conceptions will be more vivid, if we
caU to mind, for a moment, the fate of the Greek
repubhcs. At the time of the breaking out of the
great civil war between them, these republics had
reached the summit of their glory. Pericles had
conceived the grand idea of forming them into a
federal union something like ours, under one gen-

OBATION. 37

eral government and a common capital. Had he
succeeded, the fate of Greece and the story of the
AYorld for centuries would have been different ;
but he failed. The selfish and ambitious, the men
of ordinary talents, but eager for power, felt that
they would lose influence and position in a united
Greece ; and so the miserable idea of petty state
sovereignties prevailed. Instead of forming a union
that would have been for the strength, the glory
and the preservation of all, these republics rushed
into a war, which ended in the exhaustion and
ruin of all. Our union had already been formed
under a nobler than Pericles ; and the object, the
attempt of the war was to break it up. Once
broken, the two fragments would not long have
remained entire.

The very idea upon which many southern men,
particularly those who were in the army and navy,
undertake to defend their treason, viz., that their
State claimed and had a right to thek first alle-
giance, would have compelled them to resist the
central despotism, by which alone the Confederacy
could have been held together, when once it became
independent ; so that soon the States that were to
compose it would have been fighting among them-
selves. The northern republic, the glory of the

38 JULY i, 1866.

old Union gone, its grand inspiration no longer a
power in the heart, would soon probably have be-
come a prey to internal dissensions, and so all
over the land there would have been wars and
fightings, confusion and disaster ; and these would
have continued and increased till exhaustion came,
and by the close of half a century, some new
Philip of Macedon, as in Greece, or some new
Louis Napoleon, as in Mexico, would have ap-
peared, and under the mild term of intervention,
would have seized the liberties of a people, who
had shown themselves unworthy to possess and
incompetent to maintain them, and who would be
glad to accept even despotism, if it brought peace.
In all the glorious past, there is nothing more
glorious, no more distinct token of a benignant
purpose, on the part of the Almighty Providence,
in regard to the interests of liberty and humanity
in our land, than the clear triumph of the Gov-
ernment in our late civil war. That triumph, with
all its accompaniments, has brought us to a grand
position before the world an4 among ourselves. It
has shown us the power of a free people when
true, and determined to be true, at any cost of
sacrifice and eff'ort, to great ideas and principles.
It has preserved the Union, whose destruction was

ORATION. 39

attempted, and made it more stable than it was
before. It has abolished slavery, and so withdrawn
the only element that stood in the way of a living
unity and a hearty nationality among the whole
people. It has wiped out the one dark spot upon
our escutcheon, the one terrible inconsistency, which
alone had been our shame at home, and our re-
proach abroad. It has amended and improved the
Constitution of the United States, which, worthy of
our support before, may now claim the unqualified
allegiance, the devoted loyalty of our hearts and
lives, and challenge the admiration of the world.
It has shown liberty to be a grand and glorious
thing, a principle and a power, which we may
well wish to have prevail more and more among
the nations.

But our national position, though grand and glo-
rious, is not without difficulties and troubles, that
awaken anxiety, and demand the exercise of a
large political wisdom.

War always leaves, peace always opens many
questions that are to .be settled, not by force, but
by reason and judgment, by mutual forbearance and
a mutual desire to do that which is right and best.
The agitation of the waves never ceases the moment
the storm subsides. And yet with us there has been

40 JXJLY 4, 18 6 6.

far less agitation than might have been expected.
It is but fifteen months since the war ceased, yet
never before, I apprehend, did any nation at the
close of so brief a period, after so gigantic a con-
flict, find itself in so good condition as this nation
finds itself to-day. There have been no wide com-
mercial embarrassments, no great financial crises,
nothing to bewUder, disturb or arrest the industiy
or enterprise of the country ; but these, with all the
capital they can command, are putting themselves
forth in various ways to repair the waste which war
has caused : and under then influence many ques-
tions will settle themselves, or rather be settled by
the force of laws, which passion, prejudice and
unwise legislation may do something to thwart, but
cannot utterly annul.

The Southern people may say, as the newspapers
teU us they do say, that they will not sell their land
to the Yankees ; that they wUl not encourage the
emigration of Northern men and Northern capital.
It is very natural that they should say this, but
they cannot " fight it out on this line." Some will
try undoubtedly, (it would be surprising if they did
not,) but whenever it comes to a clear question
between passion and prejudice on the one hand,

ORATION. 41

and interest and progressive wealth on the other,
interest and progressive w^ealth vpill carry the day.

They will not sell their land to the Yankees ;
but the lands are there, untilled and unoccupied,
with streams, timber, mines, waiting for labor,
enterprise and capital to unfold then- resources
and make them productive. And these, the incu-
bus of slavery being removed, will flock in and
find opportunities, will receive a welcome, and
produce more and more then- inevitable results,
and a new order of things wiU spring up, and
before she knows it, free Vkgiaia, in wealth, in
population, in exports, may regain that precedence
of New York which she held m the old colonial
times; and many of the Southern States, now poor
and exhausted, may hereafter, in wealth, in intelli-
gence, in intellectual and moral power, in all that
adorns and elevates a community, rival many of their
Northern sisters, and none will glory m that rivalry
more than these sisters themselves.

Undoubtedly, as we learn through the newspa-
pers, from private letters and various other sources,
many things are said and done at public meetings,
at private gatherings and in all manner of ways
at the South, which indicate that there is still

42 JULY i, 1866.

a large measure of disloyalty there ; a determi-
nation on the part of many to cherish feelings
of hatred and and dislike toward the Union and the
North ; to oppose any improvement in the condition
of the negro, and keep him as far as possible in the
condition of serfdom; and, in general, in all possible
ways to fan the embers of disloyalty, sedition, and
treason, in the hope that they may be kept alive
and made to blaze out again in destructive fury.
This ought not to surprise or disturb. It was to be
expected ; and when we consider how absolutely
their hopes have been disappointed, their plans frus-
trated, and their great enterprise, upon which they
entered with such boastful confidence, brought to a
miserable failure, we ought not to expect that there
should be at once a universal and cheerful acqui-
escence in such untoward results ; but we in our
grand triumph should certainly be willing to exer-
cise a large and patient forbearance toward the kri-
tations of disappointment.

Two things which are of essential importance
are fixed forever. Slavery is abolished. The negroes
are free, and though not invested, as many other
persons are not, with what may be called some
of the privileges of citizenship, yet through that
grand enactment, the Civil Eights BUI, they

ORATION. 43

are protected and secured in all their essen-
tial rights as free men: and the enjoyment
and possession of these rights will briag such
a sense of manhood and such desire and oppor-
tunity to improve, that if they remain anywhere
long or largely in actual serfdom, the fault
will be chiefly their own. K we will but refrain
from returning raUing for railiag, we may safely
leave it to time, and to other combining and con-
sphing influences to remove the mitations of dis-
appointment, to extinguish the scattered embers of
disloyalty, and, through a better knowledge and a
better intercourse between them, bring the people
of the North and South to such mutual respect and
confidence as shall bind them in strong attachment
to each other, and to the Union that makes them
one people.

Undoubtedly, there are many questions in regard
to reconstruction, and readmission to political rights,
and the extent to which deprivation of these rights,
or other punishment shall be inflicted upon rebels,
that still remain to be determined, and the determi-
nation of which, amid the different opinions that are
expressed, excites painful anxiety in many minds.
The difficulties, originally inherent in this subject,
have been somewhat enhanced by that sad event,

44 JXJLY i, 1866.

whicli raised to the Presidency of the nation one
elected to be its Vice-President.

Our experience, fortunately not frequent, teaches
that it is a great misfortune to the nation to have,
and a terribly trymg position to the individual to
Je, what has been, improperly yet expressively,
termed " an accidental President of the United
States." Accordmg to the ordinary custom and
course of political affairs among us, the person put
into the Vice-Presidency has commonly little more
of political distinction or office to expect. He is
not so much in the Ime of succession or advance-
ment, as prominent members of the Cabinet, the
Senate, or the House of Eepresentatives. As Vice-
President, his powers, position and prospects are
limited; and if, through the death of the President,
he is suddenly intrusted with " the powers and
duties of the said office," it is perhaps too much
to expect, that he should be so much larger than
the office, so much stronger and superior to the
ckcumstances, as to be able to meet the position
naturally and simply, without thought of self, and
with no considerations other than those of the
public good to influence his action and policy.

On beuig thus called to this position, the first
strong feeling or consciousness of the mdividual must

OBATION. 45

be, that he was not elected to it by the suffrage of
the people, that it was not expected that he would
have to fill it, that there is perhaps a general
feeling of regret that he has been summoned to it;
and this is naturally followed by some questioning
as to how far the sympathy and confidence of the
party that elected him will gather to his support;
while immediately there are indications more or less
distinct, — and sometimes very distinct, — that the
opposite party regard him with more sympathy and
confidence than they did his predecessor, and far
more than they ever expressed for himself previ-
ously, and stand, waiting and anticipating, ready to
welcome any such changes of policy as will enable
them to give him their party indorsement. The
next step, in the succession of emotions, is the feel-
ing that it does not become his dignity, or his
talents, or the great powers and interests intrusted
to him, to be the mere heir-at-law, as it were,
simply the executor of his predecessor's policy and
plans ; and so he begins to diverge from these,
and diverges more and more, till at length, the
divergence from the principles and policy of the
friends, who elected him to the Vice-Presidency,
becomes so great, that there is nothing left for him

46 JULY i, 1866.

but an attempt to have a policy and a party of
his own.

I can conceive of no position in any govern-
ment, certainly there can be none in our own,
attended with so much personal discomfort, so
full of trial, temptation and difficulty as that of a
President, inducted into his high trusts .and duties,
by such an event as brought the present incumbent
to the chair of state. The very difficulties of his
position give him a peculiar claim to all that chari-
table and forbearing judgment, which we are con-
tinually called upon to exercise toward all men in
public and political life. Such judgment we should
endeavor to exercise toward him, though we may not
be able to approve or indorse all his acts, or
disposed to relinquish our adherence to those prin-
ciples of policy, which we conceive to be of essentia,!
importance in the present exigencies of the country.

This policy and all the matters connected with
reconstruction belong, I suppose, upon the theory of
our Government, specially, if not exclusively, to its
legislative rather than its executive department;
and we may confidently hope, I think, that the
policy of Congress, if it need modification, will be
80 modified, will be made so just and wise and

OBATION. 47

generous as to secure the confirmation of the Pre
sident, and be approved and upheld by the people.
The only deske, which any thoughtful, dispassionate
person can have, in regard to all the points involved
in the question of reconstruction, is that they
should be so settled as to promote the safety of
the country, prevent the initiation of any future
rebellion, and efface, as far and as fast as possible,
all traces and all sources of sectional strife and dis-
cord. No man can desire that anything should be
done, that any deprivation should be prolonged or
any punishment inflicted, in the mere sphit of vin-
dictiveness.

In all cases of this kind there are two points,
two extremes, to be avoided: undue lenity on the
one hand, undue severity on the other. The lesson
of history teaches that the mistake, which all rulers
are apt to make, is that of undue severity. We,
I apprehend, are in no danger of error in this
direction. We are the most good-natured peo-
ple in the world; it is one of oin: great faults
that we immediately feel a strong sympathy for the
criminal, a tender compassion for the wrong-doer,
the moment he gets within the grip and grasp of
the law. The fact that fifteen months have passed

48 JJJLY 4, 186 6.

since the close of a rebellion, whicli, all things con-
sidered, must be regarded as the most gigantic polit-
ical crime on record, and yet no one has been tried,
convicted or punished, is pretty conclusive testimony,
that there is nowhere any spirit of vindictiveness or
cruelty, on the part of the people or their rulers.
Multitudes have been pardoned, but no one has
been punished.

The great military chief of the rebellion, — a
man whom the United States Government had edu-
cated, supported, honored and trusted, whose antece-
dents and position gave that government the strongest
claims to his unswerving allegiance, and whom history
will hold largely responsible for all the barbarous
cruelties inflicted upon Federal prisoners, — this man
is, and has been for some months, quietly acting as
the President of a college ; has been permitted, as
a paroled prisoner of war, to take charge of
the education, the formation of the characters of
the young men of the nation! I may challenge
the records of all the civil wars of the world, to
present a parallel to such leniency, to adduce an
instance in which the great military commander of
an organized rebellion, of four years' duration, was
permitted, without trial or punishment thereon, to

ouation. 49

glide quietly into a position of such trust, honor and
responsibility, as that of the head of a literary and
educational institution.

I have no deske that any one should suffer the
extreme penalty, which under the law attaches to the
crime of treason ; but for its moral influence upon
the country and the world, it does seem to me of
the highest importance, that through the indictment
of some one, a crime so great as this rebellion should
be brought to solemn and unsparing legal investiga-
tion, and that there should be, on the records of the
highest tribunal of the country, a verdict of guHty and
a sentence of condemnation. That verdict reached,
that condemnation declared, I care not then what
clemency the government may exercise. God for-
bid that we should thkst for any man's blood!

Everything points to the late President of the Con-
federacy, so called, as the mdividual against whom
these grave legal proceedings should be instituted.
Moreover, this man stands before the country charged
by the present President of the United States, in
a solemn proclamation issued under the seal of
State, with complicity in that foul conspiracy which
accomplished the assassination of his predecessor,
and attempted that of other important members of
the United States Government. One would not

50 , JULY 4, 1866.

have tliat arcli-traitor, the head of the rebel Con-
federacy, treated with personal injustice. Personal
and national honor alike forbid the President of the
United States to keep the grounds, upon which this
grave charge was made, much longer among the
secrets of the executive archives. The charge
should either be withdrawn, or brought to legal
investigation, or the facts upon which it was made
should be published to the world, that the world
may pass its moral verdict thereon.

Some measure, some limited, temporary measure
of political deprivation of poHtical rights, as a po-
litical punishment for a poHtical crime, would seem
to be deserved by the rebels, and imperiously de-
manded by the safety and honor of the country.

I am not statesman enough, and certainly not
enough of a politician, to understand the nice dis-
tinctions that have been made between " re-construc-
tion" and "restoration," between rebel States being
"in" or "out" of the Union; nor have I been able
to get at the idea, under a government like ours,
of a State as an entity, independent of the people
who compose it. Through some mental or moral
defect, it may be, I have only been able to reach
to this general idea, which I supposed was an
axiom of all civil poHty; namely, that armed and

ORATION. 51

organized rebellion put everything at hazard. If it
succeed it gains all; if it fail it loses all — all
that it had, all that it sought ; and its vanquished
instigators are at the discretionary disposal of the
government that subdues them, have no rights but
to be treated in such way as mercy, vpisdom, judg-
ment, humanity may dictate, and the best interests
of the nation, w^hose life they have imperilled, and
whose peace they have outraged, may demand.

If this be not an axiom in civil polity, a principle
inherent in all civil government, I see not how there
can be any security against frequent rebellions or
iasurrections. If our fathers had faUed in their great
revolutionary struggle, and had at length said, " We
submit, we withdraw and annul our Declaration of
Independence, we admit your right to tax* us without
representation, but we claim our old colonial charters
and aU the rights secured to us by those charters,"
Great Britain would probably have laughed at the
idea, declined the proposal, and made answer, "Your
colonial charters : you broke, violated, forfeited these,
when you undertook to rebel and be independent.
You have no claim now, even to your old colonial
rights, and we do not think it is safe to trust you
with them at present; we do not wish to encourage
another rebellion among you. When your loyalty is

52 JULY i, 1866.

clearly re-established, when it is evident that you are
and mean to be good citizens and subjects, we will
restore your charters and aU your colonial privileges,
but not till we are satisfied on this point." This,
which Great Britain might have said to our fathers,
which any government, from principles inherent in all
governments, may say to vanquished rebels, our own
government has a right to say to the people and
States lately in rebellion against it.

This right must be admitted, or we must admit,
that the war, on the part of the government,
was wrong from the begiiming; and this position
leads, by a swift and irresistible logic, to the anni-
hilation of the Federal Government, and the intro-
duction of anarchy into the country. That something
of this sort may and must be said is, I believe,
admitted by all, except perhaps the rebels them-
selves. In fact, something of this character has
already been said, and what more is necessary
will be said ; a just measure of individual and
temporary deprivation of political right will be
awarded, and the Executive, the Congress and the
People will uphold it, and the world will commend
it as just and wise and right: and under its influence
the country will work its way out of these present
difficulties, and enter upon that career of glory

OMATION. 53

which is before her, — a career so grand, that imag-
ination fails and falters in attempting to form an
adequate conception of it.

Never had any other people a future before them,
making such demands upon theh energies, their ambi-
tion, thek highest aspirations. No thoughtful and
reflecting mind, baptized into the spirit of faith in a
divine purpose and providence guiding the educa-
tion and destinies of the race, can refuse to cherish
the conviction, certainly the hope, darkened it may be
by occasional doubts, but never sinking into despair,
that here, in this country, beneath the influence of
our civU and religious liberty, our social institutions,
and the grand opportunity offered by this broad, new
continent, there is to be a development of humanity,
a progressive social life, such as has been nowhere
exhibited in the world before, corresponding in its
fruits of intelligence, comfort, happiness, in the large-
ness of its spirit and form, its beauty and power, to
the largeness of the scale, on which nature here dis-
plays itself in our mountains, lakes, rivers and bound-
less prairies. In every mind, that has ever cherished
it, that hope must be stronger and brighter to-day
than it ever was before.

Our material prosperity is all but inevitable. Situ-
ated in the temperate zone, an immense territory,

5*

54 JTILY 4, 1866.

stretching from north to south more than two thou-
sand miles, and from east to west across the conti-
nent, from ocean to ocean, with a wide variety of
chmate, soil, productions, with mineral wealth of
every kind and of incalculable amount, with a net-
work of rivers, navigable and fertilizing, spread over
that wonclerful Mississippi basin, whose annual har-
vest might almost feed the race, our country has such
material resources, is such a miniature world in itself,
that nothing but the most reckless obstinacy and per-
severing folly can prevent its material growth and
prosperity.

Its very condition at this moment, as it emerges
from a costly civil war, carrying, as if it were a
feather's weight, an amount of debt which would
crush many other nations, is at once a testimony
to its recuperative energies, and a prophecy of its
future progress. Everywhere there is hope, cheer-
fulness, enterprise, and revelations, more and more
distinct, of the exhaustless resources and the mighty
productive power of the nation. Soon a ship canal
in our own territory will leave Niagara still a thing
of beauty and grandeur, but no longer an obstacle,
and put our navigation of the great lakes in a con-
dition not to be easily disturbed, Some, who hear
me, will live to see the completion of that gigantic

OBATION. 55

project, a railroad across this continent. In its
domestic uses and benefits, the efi"ect of this upon
our internal development and progress cannot be
over-estimated ; while as a connecting link, a short
direct route between Western Europe and Eastern
Asia, it will, in all probability, become a great high-
way of traffic and travel between these two great
centres of Christian and heathen civilization. Should
this be the result, it will so materially change the
relations between them, that the commercial index
on the dial-plate of time will point pretty distinctly
to an hour, when the metropolitan city of our own
country will take precedence of London, as the mon-
eyed and commercial centre of the world.

But there is something much more important to a
nation than its material wealth and grandeur. These
can only seciu'e it a short-lived existence ; they wUl
be but sure precursors of its ruin, unless accompanied
by a moral development, an intellectual culture and
strength, that shall enable the people to resist their
temptations, and use prosperity and power for high
and noble purposes. Intellectual and moral culture go
together; they cannot be widely separated; the for-
mer necessarily carries with it a large amount of the
latter; and the intellectual and moral culture of the
people of this country must be regarded by every

56 JULY i, 1866.

patriotic mind as the first thing to be secured and
the last to be neglected: worthy of every effort and
sacrifice, of the most patient labors, and of the most
costly contributions we can make to it.

This culture must be universal and progressive for
these are the conditions of our liberty. It must reach
to the highest, that it may be thek inspiration and
glory. It must reach to the lowest, that it may be their
resource, their defence, their incentive ; add to then*
dignity, enlarge their honor, and guide their power.
Two ideas, the one narrow and the other false, which
have been recently advocated with more ability than
they deserve, must find no acceptance among us.
"We are educating too much," it is said: "reading,
writing, arithmetic, the simplest rudiments of knowl-
edge, are all that is necessary for the mass of the
people. More only unfits them for their position and
their duties." The mass of the people ! Who shaU
dare thus to separate himself from the mass of the
people, and maintain that the education, which is
necessary and good for him, is not good for all to
whom it can be offered] This mass is perpetually
shifting its particles ; the poor of to-day are the
rich of to-morrow, and the rich of to-day the poor of
to-morrow, and the intellectual and moral culture that
is good for any is good for all. Unfits them for their

ORATION. 57

position and duties ! Is there any position in which
ignorance is better than knowledge'? or whose duties
stupidity can better discharge than inteUigence ] Show
me one person, who has more education than he can
use to advantage in his position, one person, who has
been too highly educated for his own happiness,
honor and usefulness, or for the good of the com-
munity; and for that one person, I will bring you
an army of an hundred thousand persons, whom the
same education has made happier, nobler, more use-
ful, lifted them up, and enabled them to help lift up
the community in all things good, worthy and desira-
ble. Go into some humble dwelling in this city,
whose support is the daily toil of the father, (it may
be in some very humble occupation,) and you wiU.
find perhaps that the oldest daughter is attending
our Girls' High and Normal School. Are we doing
that family and the community an injury by giving
that daughter so good an education? Are we doing
her an injury by developing her mind by all the
knowledge imparted, and her heart by all the influ-
ences that surround her at that school? I maintain
that the chances are ten thousand to one, that this
daughter is a beam of moral sunlight in that dwell-
ing, — its ornament, — its defence, — its incentive, —

58 JULY 4, 18G6.

its glory. She is introducing to it, it may be, better
principles and habits, a higher tone of thought, feel-
ing and conduct. She is better fitted every way to
discharge the duties of her position, to meet both
the temptations and. the opportunities that may come
to her in life ; and should she ever have a home of
her own, whether it be humbler or higher than the
one she now fills, she will make it a home of intel-
ligence and vhtue ; and the more such daughters in
the same position in life we can so educate the
better, the safer for the community.

" But no," cries the advocate of the false idea,
"intelligence and vhtue do not go together; education
increases the ingenuity, but it does not diminish the
amount of crime ; and the records of the courts show
that many persons brought into them as crimuaals
have had the highest advantages of education;" and
so, because Satan was once an angel of light, the
light should be put out and all live in darkness ;
for that is the amount of the argument. Because the
wise are sometimes weak, because the educated are
sometimes criminal, education must be limited. It
is a false argument, for the failure of some should
never forbid the eff'ort of any or all. As a general
statement, it cannot be true that the nearer men

ouation. 59

approach, to their Maker in one of his attributes,
knowledge, the farther they recede from him in
another, goodness. Education is an incalculable good;
all who have received any measiue of its benefits
and blessings, feel it to be a good. It is the power
that has raised man from ignorance to knowledge,
from barbarism to civilization, and carried him for-
ward continually to a more advanced civihzation, a
more glorious social condition ; and, therefore, the
the higher we carry it, the more we extend and
difiuse it, the better for our comitry and the world.
We at least in this country, (to use the expression
I have used once before this morning,) " we must
fight it out on this line." We cannot go back. Our
idea is that of freedom. We have determined that
every man is and shall be ' free in this land ; and
freedom has no secmity, no defence, protection or
safeguard but education, and that moral power and
principle which education brings ; and this education,
to preserve our freedom and accomplish our purpose,
must be broad, generous, universal and progressive,
must keep pace with our material growth and pros-
perity, so that the nation may be morally as strong,
wise, pure and noble, as it is great, wealthy and
powerful.

60 JULY 4, 1866.

Friends and fellow-citizens, let me relieve your
patience by saying in conclusion, that no extent of
territory, however large ; no amount of material
prosperity, however grand; no intellectual and moral
ciilture even, however advanced and widely difFused,
can give us all that we need to fulfil the great mis-
sion that is before us. These things are necessary
ingredients, but there must be something to unite,
to bind them together. They are incidental ; they
may make a country, but they cannot make, a nation.
What is necessary to make a nation, and that nation
powerful and permanent, is a spkit of nationality,
living and breathing in every heart, binding all to
common ideas, principles and interests, to a common
purpose and destiny. Thus considered, nationality is
as glorious, sublime and powerful a sentiment, as it
is sweet, lovely and venerable. We of aU people
should have a spirit of nationality: the grandeur of
our country as it came from the hands of God de-
mands it ; our condition, prospects, privileges and
opportunities demand it. Let it be everywhere cul-
tivated and cherished, let it swell and breathe in
every soul, binding all these millions of hearts, from
the waters of yonder bay to the city of the Golden
Gate, into one great national heart, that shall live

OliATIOX. 61

and throb with love and loyalty to all that our flag-
symbolizes, to all that the Constitution secures, to all
that liberty means, to all that humanity desires and
would achieve, then this Great Republic, which, but
yesterday, the despots of Eiu'ope thought was crum-
bling to pieces, shall rise again like a giant to in-
struct, overshadow and outlast them all.

APPENDIX

CELEBRATION

FOURTH OF JULY, 1866,

Bt an order of the City Council, approved May 1st, 1866,
the following gentlemen were appointed a Committee to make
suitable arrangements for the Celebration of the Ninetieth Anni-
versary of the Declaration of American Independence : Alder-
men Thomas Gafpield, Chairman, George W. Messingee,
Edwaed F. Pobtbr, Samuel D. Crake, Benjamin James,
Jonas Fitch, Charles W. Slack; Councilmen Joseph Story,
President, William J. Ellis, John Miller, Elam W.
Hale, Granville Mears, James J. Fltnn, Jaevis D. Bra-
man, Christopher A. Connor, George P. Darrow, John
C. Hatnes, Charles Caverly, Jr., Hubbard W. Tilton,
George P. French. His Honor, Mayor Lincoln, was invited
to consult with the Committee, and to preside on all public
occasions connected with the celebration.

Under the direction of this Committee a programme was
arranged and carried out which gave general satisfaction. The
day was ushered in by the ringing of bells, and the firing of
national salutes from the Common and Mount Washmgton by
detachments of the Second Battery, M. V. M., Captain C. W.
Baxter. The public buildings were decorated by Messrs. Lam-
prell & Marble, and flags were displayed at all prominent
points.

66 JJJLY 4, 1866.

At 6 J o'clock in the morning the iiremen assembled in Charles
Street, with their steam engines, hose, and hook and ladder car-
riages, and formed a procession with the right resting on Bea-
con Street. The procession was marshalled by Mr. G. H.
Allen, Secretary of Board of Engineers, and at seven o'clock
was put in motion over the following route : Beacon to ArKng-
ton Street, down Commonwealth Avenue to Berkley Street,
countermarching in Commonwealth Avenue to Arlington Street,
thence through Boylston, Pleasant, and Tremont Streets, Union
Park, Washington, Boylston, Tremont, Court, Greene, Leverett,
Spring, Allen, Blossom, Cambridge, to Charles Street. The
men were uniformly dressed, and their line appearance called
forth the applause of the people, who lined the sidewalks along
the route over which they passed.

Under the direction of Mr. P. S. Gilmore a concert was
given at 8J o'clock, on the Common, by one hundred musicians.

The following programme was performed :

1 — American Hymn, Modern Composition. Keller.

2 — Concert Polka, " Golden Eobin." Bosquet.

3 — Overture, "AUesandro Stradella." Flotow.

4 — Union Eailroad Galop, with imitations. Downing.
5 — Grand Selections from "Martha." Flotow.

6 — Continental Melange, "Sounds from Europe." Jullien.

Musical and other entertainments, chiefly for the Children of
the Public Schools, were provided at the Boston Theatre, Music
Hall and Tremont Temple, under the management of a Com-
mittee of the Warren Street Chapel, subject to the direction of
the City Committee.

At the Music Hall, performances were given on the Great
Organ by Mr. G. E. Whiting, and vocal and instrumental music
was furnished by the Alleghanians and Swiss Bell Ringers. At
Tremont Temple there were five exhibitions of Natural Magic,
Legerdemain, Ventriloquism, and Punch and Judy, by Professor

CELEBBATION. 67

Bryant. At the Boston Theatre facilities were afforded for
dancing and promenading.

At 9J o'clock a procession, composed of members of the City
Government and invited guests, was formed at the City Hall,
under th« direction of Col. John Kurtz, Chief Marshal. The
procession was escorted by a battalion of boys from the Latin
and English High Schools, under the command of Col. Thorn-
dike Nourse, through the following streets: School, Beacon,
Arlington, Boylston, Tremont, and Winter streets, to the
entrance to Music Hall. The order of exercises at the Music
Hall was as follows :

1 — Music by the Orchestra.

2 — National Hymn — " Hail Columbia " — Organand Orchestra. [Sung
by four hundred children of the Public Schools.]

3 — Prayer by Rev. Henry M. Dexter.

4 — National Songs — Arranged by Carl Zerrahn.

5 — Reading of the Declaration of Independence, by John D. Philbrick,
Esq., Superintendent Public Schools.

6 — Keller's "American Hymn," — Organ and Orchestra.

7 — Oration, by Eev. Samuel K. Lothrop, D.D.

■8 — Original Hymn, by Eev. D. A. Wasson.

HaU to the day whose happy mom
Breaks into joy of hopes new born !
While earth in triumph greets the sky,
TiU heaven to earth peal glad reply.

Hail to the land whose millions all

"With Preedom's cause wlU stand or fall!

Again to-day their oath is given :

" Man's right on earth, his King in heaven ! "

Hail to the heroes who bore down
The proud that stole from heaven its crown,
And told the world with speaking sword,
"Do, man is free, and God is Lord ! "

Thou who art Liberty and Law,
Kigh unto us, thy children, draw ;
Kindle in us the ancient flres.
And give true sons to noble sires.

68 JULY i, 1866.

The singing was performed by a choir selected from the
pupils of the Grammar Schools, under the direction of Carl
Zerrahn.

One of the new features in the celebration of the day was a
sailing regatta in the harbor. The judges were Mr. Daniel
Briscoe, Chairman, Captain Charles Robbing, Captain Josiah G-.
Lovell, Captain John Greer, and Captain Alfred Nash.

The first race was for centre-board and keel yachts of fifteen
tons and upwards (new measurement). Two prizes were offered
— silver pitchers valued at $100 each — one for the winning
keel, and the other for the winning centre-board yacht. The
course was as follows : Down Broad Sound, leaving Ram Head
Buoy on the starboard, and Fawn Bar on the port ; rounding the
Flag Boat, which was stationed off Nahant, leaving it on the
starboard ; returning by the same route back, passing south of
the Judges' Boat. The distance was twenty-five miles, including
six miles allowed for beating home.

The yachts which participated were the "Nettie," 54.84 tons,
schooner-rigged, centre-board, entered and commanded by Dex-
ter H. Follett; the "Edwin Forest," 36.16 tons, schooner, keel,
by Captain John Low; "Surprise," 32 tons, schooner, keel, by
Captain Quinn; the "Alice," 27.44 tons, sloop, keel, owned by-
T. G. Appleton, but sailed by A. H. Clark ; and the " Minnie,"
20.25 tons, schooner, keel, by B. F. Bibber. The "Edwin For-
rest " was the winner of the first prize. Time, 2 hours 32 min-
utes and 20 seconds. The prize for centre-board was won by
the " Nettie."

The second race was for centre-board and keel yachts of five
and under fifteen tons (new measurement) ; and the prizes were
two medallion pattern silver pitchers, valued at $75 each — one
for the winning keel, and the other for the winning centre-board
yacht. The course sailed by this class of yachts was from the

CELEBMATION. 69

judges' boat down West "Way, leaving Thompson's Island on the
starboard, Spe ctacle Island on the port, round west head of Loug
Island to the Narrows, leaying Eainsford Island on the starboard.
Fort "Warren on the starboard. Gallop's Island on the port,
Lovell's Island on the starboard ; and return, leaving Nicks'
Mate on the port, passing up between Sound Point Beacon and
east end of Long Island, leaving Fort Independence on the port.
City Point on the starboard, then to the judges' boat, passing it
to the southward, thus making a distance of about eighteen miles,
allowing three miles made in beating.

The yachts entered for this race came to moorings in the fol-
lowing order: "Ws," 11.52 tons, sloop-rigged, centre-board,
entered and commanded by John F. Pray; "Tartar," 12.86
tons, sloop, centre-board, by Charles A. Hayden ; " Columbia,"
12.95 tons, sloop, keel, by Augustus Russ; ''"\^iolet," 11 tons,
sloop, centre-board, by Eben Denton; "Napoleon," 8.09 tons,
sloop, centre-board, by T. D. Boardman ; " Osceola," 7.04
tons, schooner, keel, by L. Shellhammer; "Mercury," 6.92 tons,
schooner, keel, by J. E. Herman; "John Quincy Adams," 5.91
tons, schooner, keel, by. A. Lothrop; "Mist,'' 5.80 tons, sloop,
keel, by Joshua H. Pitman; "Scud," 5.63 tons, sloop, centre-
board, by Charles E. Folsom; "Dawn," 6.37 tons, schooner,
keel, by Frank A. Bibber ; " Ranger," 6 tons, schooner, keel, by
Elijah Harris.

On the outward stretch the " Tartar " had her mast carried
away, and was obliged to withdraw. The " Iris '! kept the lead,
and came home in 1 hour 9 miautes and 40 seconds after she
started. The " Violet " came next, 1 minute and 55 seconds
behind the "Iris; " the "Scud " next, 3 minutes and 34 seconds
behind the "Violet; " and the "Napoleon" next, 40 seconds in
the rear of the " Scud." Of the keel boats, the " Columbia"
came home in 1 hour 23 minutes 26 seconds, with the "John
Quincy Adams" 1 minute 55 seconds behind. The "Mercury,"
"Mist," and "Osceola" brought up the rear. The- "Scud"

70 JULY 4, 1866.

was declared the -winning centre-board by allowance on mea-
surement, and the "John Quincy Adams" was declared the
winning keel, by allowance on measurement.

For the third and last race three prizes were offered — the
first a silver pitcher, valued at $60 ; the second a silver goblet,
valued at $40; the third prize, a silver goblet, valued at $25.
This race was for centre-board and keel yachts, measuring
in length twenty feet and upwards from stem to rudder
post, and under five tons; and the course was from the
judges' boat down to the Red Buoy No. 6, on the Lower Middle,
rounding it on the starboard, thence to Spectacle Island, leaving
it on the port to Moon Head, leaving it on the starboard, round-
ing Flag Boat, stationed in Quincy Bay, leaving it on the star-
board; returning, leaving Moon Head and Thompson's Island
on the port, passing flag boat, on a line and south of the judges'
boat, leaving it on the starboard, thence to flag boat, stationed
in Old Harbor, leaving it on the starboard, and returning pass-
ing south of the judges' boat, making a distance of about ten
miles. Allowance for heating the same as ia the second race.

The yachts entered were the "Arion," 21 feet 6 inches,
schooner rigged, keel, by A. P. Ford; the "Echo," 26 feet, sloop,
centre-board, by H. F. Barker; the "Marion," 27 feet 5 inches,
schooner, keel, by Daniel Robbins; "Little Nellie," 22 feet,
sloop, keel, by N. C. Greenough; "Ariel," 20 feet, schooner,
keel, by John M. Downing; "Ion," 21 feet, schooner, keel, by
William Snowdon; "North Star," 20 feet, schooner, keel, by
Arthur L. Scott; "Cora," 25 feet, sloop, keel, by Joseph H.
Blake; "Minnehaha," 20 feet, schooner, keel, by N. Curtis;
"Parqueta," 24 feet, sloop, keel, by W. Burrows; "Electra," 26
feet, sloop, keel, by J. H. Sears ; " Mary Ellen," 23 feet, sloop,
centre-board, by Androis Lane; "Mandy," 21 feet, sloop, cen-
tre-board, by C. Hill of Dorchester; " Coquette," 20 feet, sloop,
centre-board, by J. B. Kingman of Dorchester; "Secret," 22
feet, sloop, centre-board, by J. Brinney; "Magic," 25 feet,

CELEBRATION. 71

centre-board, by R. M. Pratt; and " Clitheroe," 24 feet, schooner,
centre-board, by Benjamin Dean.

The first prize was awarded to the « Clitheroe," (centre-
board,) the second prize to the "Blectra," (keel), and the third
to the " Marion," (keel).

The rowing regatta took place on Charles River, at 3 J
o'clock, P. M. The judges were Messrs. R. P. Clark, H. T.
Rockwell, B. C. Bates, S. A. B. Abbott, P. H. Colbert, H. W.
Foley, D. J. Sweeney, and John T. Gardner.

The first race was for single scull wherries, distance two
miles ; first prize, $75 ; second prize, $50. The following are
the names of the boats, and the contestants, in the order of
their positions: "Admiral Farragut," J. DriscoU, of Boston;
« George Thatcher," Walter Brown, of Portland; "Experiment,"
George Faulkner, of Boston ; « T. F. Doyle," P. Foster, of Bos-
ton ; " J. D. P.," F. "W. Sargent, of Boston. The wherries started
at 23 minutes and 45 seconds after 3 o'clock. The " Thatch-
er " took the lead and kept ahead throughout the race, winning
in 17 : 10. The " Doyle " came in next, having turned the stake
second, and won the second prize in 18: 11 J. The "Experi-
ment" was third, in 19 :0J; the "Admiral" fourth, and "J. D.
P." last.

The second race was for double scull wherries, distance three
miles ; first prize $100 ; second prize, $50. Four boats had
been entered, although but two appeared at the start. These
were, — in order of position, — the " John A. Andrew," rowed
by P. J. Brennan and M. J. McKee, and the " C. B. H.," by Ed-
ward Hollis and James Sullivan. The "John A. Andrew"
came in about two lengths ahead, in 27 : 49, and the " C. B. H."
in 27: 57.

The third race was for four-oared boats, distance three miles ;
first prize, $125 ; second prize, $50. The following boats and

72 JUL7 4, 1866.

crews appeared, bemg all those entered, with the exception of
the " Union," of Worcester. They occupied positions in order
of naming: "Volunteer," Jas. Cleary (stroke), D. H. Brenen,
B. J. Rodgers, M. J. Gleason (bow), Boston ; " Frank Quinn,"
Dennis Leary (stroke), John Blue, Robert Ellis, Henry Burden
(bow). New York J "Young Neptune," Andrew Gallagher
(stroke), James Clarke, John McGrath, Thomas Gait (bow), St.
John; "Thetis," Edw. Woodard (stroke), Edw. McCawley,
Geo. Price, Geo. Nice (bow), St. John, N. B. ; " Geo. C. Wig-
gins," James Thompson (stroke), Robert Fulton, Matthew
McWiggia, John Morris (bow), St. John; "Union," L. S: King
(stroke), H. F. Lambert, G. H. B. Hill, B. B. Robins (bow),
Boston. The " Thetis " rounded the stake first, the " Young
Neptune " second, followed by the " Frank Quinn," " Volunteer,"
"George C. Wiggins," and the "Union." In this order the
boats came in, the "Thetis" well ahead in 20:39; "Young
Neptune," 21:01; "Frank Quinn," 23:li; "Volunteer,"
30 : Ih

The fourth race was for sis-oared boats, distance three miles ;
first prize, $150 ; second prize, $75. Four entries had been
made, of which the following made their appearance at the
start: "Una," Walter Brown (stroke), J. F. Webber, R. Wil-
liams, A. P. Harris, F. H. White, H. C. Davis (bow), Portland,
Me. ; " Piscataqua," Elias A. Staples (stroke), F. A. Staples, F.
F. Staples, Wm. A. Paul, Alexander Dixon, J. H. Paul (bow),
Elliot, Me. The stake was rounded first by the " Una," which
came in well ahead in 20 : 41 ; the "Piscataqua" making 21 : 16.

A very large number of people assembled on the parade
ground of the Common, during the afternoon, to witness Mr.
Samuel A. King's ascension in the large balloon " Queen of the
Air." When the balloon was only partially inflated it escaped
from the nettings, and after being carried some distance by the

aELEBBATION. 73

wind it collapsed. Mr. King immediately procured a smaller
balloon, called the " General Grant," in which he made an
ascension at seven o'clock. He was carried with great rapidity-
over Chelsea and Lynn, and in half an hour from the time he
started succeeded in landing at Ipswich.

During the evening very satisfactory exhibitions of fireworks
were given upon the Common, and at Bast and South Boston,
by Mr. E. L. Sanderson.

ORATION

PELIYERED BEFORE THE

CITY COUNCIL AND CITIZENS

OF BOSTON,

JULY 4:, 18 67,

REV. GEORGE H. HEPWORTE.

BOSTON:
ALFRED MUDGE & SON, CITY PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET

1 8C 7.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In Board of Aldermen, July 8, 1867.

Ordered : That the thanks of the City Council be presented
to the Reverend George H. Hepworth for the eloquent and
patriotic oration delivered by him before the City Government
and the citizens of Boston on the ninety-first anniversary of the
Declaration of American Independence ; and that he be request-
ed to furnish a copy for publication.

Passed — sent down for concurrence.

CHAS. W. SLACK, Chairman.

Concurred.

Approved.

In Common Council, July 11, 1867.
WESTON LEWIS, President.

OTIS NORCROSS, Mayor.

ORATION

Mr. Mayor, Gentlemen of the City Council, Friends

and Fellow- Citizens :

The progress towards an ideal society and an
ideal government which marks each new page of
history gives the largest encouragement to the
reformers of every age. We are moving so rapidly
that the wildest dreams of the fanatic of to-day
will become the commonplace realities of to-morrow,
while the conservatism of to-day embodies all the
ideas which the most hopeful theorist uttered yes-
terday. Each generation, bearing the world in its
giant arms, toils bravely up the mountain side
until it is worn and weary, then lifts its precious
burden to the shoulders of the young and fresh
generation that succeeds, and lies down to sleep.
With every age the burden grows heavier and more
precious, as mankind are freighted with larger
responsibilities, with new philanthropies, and with
higher duties, and with every age the strength to

6 JULY4,18(;7.

bear it grows greater as men become more wise,
more manly and more Christian. So, by slow
degrees, we are ascending from successive slaveries
to successive freedoms.

As the geographer, standing on the hither side
of the Eocky Mountains, where the stream comes
gurgling from the hidden reservoir, can watch that
slender thread of limpid light as it finds its way
through forest and plain, broadened and deepened
ever and anon by kindred streams, until at last
made omnipotent by the grand Missouri and the
grander Ohio, it pours itself a resistless flood
through the centre of a continent, — so, I take it,
the historian standing on the hither side of the
rocky summits of barbarism, and seeing the crude
thought that is to shape itself into law, and control
society, can watch that slender thread as it finds its
way from age to age, increased here by the vic-
tories of war and there by the higher victories of
peace, until at last, deepened and broadened into
omnipotence by the Missouri of Revolution and the
Ohio of Revelation, it pours itself through our cen-
tury, bearing on its bosom the world's hopes after
the higher law, and the thousand educational move-
ments by which that law is to be reached.

And, gentlemen, it is at once cheering and

ORATION. 7

instructive to note tlie various stages of this great
progressive movement. It increases our faith in
man, and adds inspiration to every new reformatory
movement, to watch the nations of the earth strug-
gling through the darkness of barbarism, feudahsm
and every kind of oppression, led by the divine
instinct which searches for the light of a larger
liberty. It gives us a new strength for to-day's
drudgery and toil to watch the gradual refinement
of society, the constant sloughing off of old and
useless customs, and the constant putting on of
new usages which better fit the growing people.

The French were only children playing with the
toys of national childhood, until Charlemagne taught
them to put oS the garments of barbarism, and to
put on the robes and manners of civilized man.
They did not grow to conscious national maturity
until they were baptized in the blood of the Revo-
lution of '93, and they will not achieve their
manifest destiny until in another revolution they shall
cast off the imperial burden that is held up by the
points of half a million bayonets and learn to gov-
ern themselves. The English were little better
than slaves until they won their freedom on the
plain of Eunnymede, and they did not grow to
manhood until they had beheaded Charles I., and

O JULY i, 1867.

proclaimed that no Stuart and no tyrant should ever
make laws for a free people. That grand impulse
which has driven them thus far will not let them
rest until they strip the lawn from the Bishops in
the House of Lords, and the particolored riband
from the so-called nobility, and proclaim aloud that
he alone is peasant who has a peasant's heart, and
he alone is noble who has a princely soul.

America began its great work of reform in
the seventeenth century. The dreams of the seers
of ages began to crystallize themselves into realities
when the keel of the Mayflower grated on the bar
of Plymouth Harbor. The Colonists entered the
high school of the new politics when the tocsin
of war called them to the support of a govern-
ment of men by men, and they graduated into the
true manhood of the race when they planted their
victorious banner on the top of Lookout Mountain,
and proclaimed Liberty throughout all the land.

We have come to believe that this whole coun-
try is consecrated to the republican experiment.
The magnificent valley between the Rocky Moun-
tains and the AUeghanies is the crucible in which
history will test the political possibilities of the
race. Untrammelled by any of the traditions or
usages of the old world, with no time-honored and

ORATION. y

time-hardened social prejudices to overcome, with
no longing after the pageantry of royalty, we feel
ourselves to be a people wholly free, and standing
on the very threshold of a work too large to
measure, and almost too appalling to contemplate.
The blood in the veins of every European nation-
ality runs sluggishly and timidly. Thrones have no
stability ; tyrants no power. The people have well-
nigh outgrown their worm-eaten tradition that kings
are ordained of God, and he who wields the sceptre
with the arrogance of earlier times does it at the
peril of his life. The continent that once held the
person of royalty sacred now simply endures a king
who knows that he not only governs but is in his
turn governed. The blood in the veins of America,
on the other hand, leaps through the ruddy channel
of life with all the force and promise of youth. We
believe that we have a special mission ; that the
whole country is ours from the warm gulf to the
frigid zone, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific ;
and that here, fired with simple faith in educated
men, we shall be able, without the aid of royal favor,
to make our own laAvs, watch over our own interests,
and write our own history. If the Old World inter-
feres, either by that strange neutrality which refuses
help to the loyal while it supplies arms to the

10 JULY 4, 18 67

disloyal, or by sending a wretched debauchee to
turn our flank in Mexico, we have but one word of
warning, — Hands off; America is neither forgetful of
her friends nor afraid of her foes.

By slow degrees our geographical limits are widen-
ing. Within a few years we have put our seal upon
the golden mountains of California and the rich plains
of Texas. Lately the magnificent territory of the
extreme northwest has been bought. It cannot be
many years before that people who have resisted
tyranny with wonderful bravery, who have at last
hedged iu within a wall of sharp bayonets the usurper
and the adventurer, will knock loud for entrance into
the Home of the Free. It cannot be long before
we shall have that narrow belt of land that lies on
the banks of the St. Lawrence and the shore of the
lakes. For two generations it has been the asylum
of the heroic black man who refused to bear the
stripes of the overseer, and the black woman who
denied her body to the lust of her master ; and now,
by the wonderful progress of events, it offers itself a
hospital to the sick at heart, those arrogant heroes
whose " dreams have faded all at length," and who
find the air of free America too bracing for the slender
life that remains after the fruitless struggle. Then, with
the whole continent our own, we can march through the

ORATION. 11

ages, keeping step to the music of Justice, Morality,
and Political Righteousness. Gentlemen, few nations
have such heavy, glorious responsibilities as we. Ee-
publicanism is but just begun. It is a temple whose
arching roof will sometime in the future offer its shelter
and protection to the people of every clime. To-day,
the poor of Europe may live content within the thatched
cottage in political oblivion, while the favored and the
wealthy sit beneath the gilded roof of power and shape
laws to suit their tastes or caprices ; but the hour shall
yet come, how far off in the distance it may be none
can tell, when the great heart and strong arm of the
people of every nationality shall decree that there shall
be no king to live in a palace, and no citizen so lowly
that he can have no voice in making the laws that
govern him, but when all the people shall come
together beneath the same roof to be ruled each by
the whole and the whole by each.

Standing, then, as we do, at the beginning of a
new era, looking forward with large hope to a
peaceful and glorious future, it is well for us to
come together on this mighty anniversary to measure
our strength and confess our weakness. We ac-
knowledge with due gratitude the constant and
especial presence of that Providence which has led
us along the weary road, guiding us in the day-

12 JULY 4, 1867.

time by the pillar of cloud that rose from the
battle-field, and in the night season by the pillar
of flame that formed the bivouac-fires of the army
of the Eepublic. We should be unworthy citizens
if we failed to recognize the hidden Hand that has
guarded us, or forgot to speak of it in the midst
of our universal festivities.

The particular elements of our nationality to which
I desire to call your special attention are, first, the
Southern Element, its nature, and its probable influ-
ence on the future.

The South has never been a help to the cause
of Republicanism. The one incendiary element in
our government, the element of caste, it has stood
in bold contrast to that levelling and democratic
influence which has been the boast and pride of
the North. With a territory almost unparalleled
for richness of soil ; with long mountain ranges
containing in large abundance every mineral which
adds to the wealth or strength of society ; with a
climate favorable to the flnest specimens of physical
and moral manhood ; with broad rivers that run
through every valley of the region ; with noble
forests to supply every domestic and commercial
need ; with agricultural possibilities that would rouse
the ambition of almost any people, — with all this

ORATION. 13

in its favor, we are compelled to admit that the
whole region is to-day practically unknown and
undeveloped. The granite hills and sterile soil of
New England, where niggardly nature gives only
what she must, developed by the strong arm and
active brain of freedom, have done more for the
cause of civilization, more for the commercial wel-
fare of the world, than all that vast territory that
might have shaped the destinies, and controlled the
government of the country. When, in the course
of a few years, the political storm shall have sub-
sided, and we come to explore and count the value
of this region, we shall tind a new argument against
slavery, and a new cause for gratitude that we
possess so rich a domain. The wealth that lies
hidden in the rocky caverns of the AUeghanies and
in the fastnesses of the Cumberland range, calhng
on the thrift and enterprise of the new generation
of young men, is beyond all calculation. Carry to
the South, and awaken ui the South, the same
foresight, energy, genius and inventive power that
have subdued the soil of the North, and before
those who are now in middle life shall have gone
to their rest, we shall find that one of the richest
and best parts of America lies between the Ohio
and the Gulf.

14 JULY i, 1867.

But to-day we have more interest in the political
aspect of that region. Everywhere is chaos, social
anarchy, while our ears are every moment greeted
with the roar of some brigand mob, or the cry
of some half-murdered man or outraged woman. How
much of this is the inevitable consequence of a
great war I cannot say ; how much might be
avoided if tire victors had only a fixed and deter-
mined policy, and an executive that dared to stand
on the true republican idea and speak with the
consciousness of having twenty millions of freemen
behind him, I am unable to determine. This, how-
ever, I know ; that mobs and murders are the rag-
ged, blood-bedraggled fringes of the crimson garment
of war. It is scarcely to be hoped that the tem-
pest-tossed ocean will calm in a moment, or that
the frenzy of the crushed and defeated will in a
single hour calm itself into the propriety of the
good citizen. If the North will only be true, there
is nothing to fear. If we will not rush at once
with only the greed for gain, into the selfishness
of accumulation, forgetful and careless of the high
political concerns of the country, the work of re-
construction, now so perplexing, will be as easy as
the work of the sculptor who shapes the plastic
clay. Too long already have we delayed. We

EAT I UN. 15

have lost headway by the "backing and filling"
of our mere politicians. We have scarcely known
what to do, or, if we have caught a glimpse of
duty now and then, we have not had the moral
courage to perform it.

If I know anything about the Southern people
I know that all that is needed to insure perfect
success in the great work before us is that we
shall first know what to do and then proceed to
do it. We have harmed our cause and stayed
our progress more than can be told, by the exceed-
ing unsteadiness of our political policy. To lift
the flag for a while with loud huzzas, as though we
intended to be exceedingly severe, and then to drop
it out of regard to the feelings of the foe, is only
to exhibit a weakness which costs us our self-
respect, while it adds a battalion to the corps of
the enemy. Nail the flag of your policy to the
mast-head, and reconstruction will be easy.

There is in the South, to-day, a large party
that will gladly co-operate with us. It is com-
posed of that middle class that never had any
heart in the war, that has reaped from it only
financial ruin. These people hate the large land-
owners as the small trader always hates the monop-
olist. For years they have seen that the cause

16 JULY 4, 18 IJ 7.

of secession was not their cause ; tliat they had no
other interest in it than that sad interest which
the serf has in the victory of his lord ; that the fight
could only end in a continuance of servitude for them-
selves and their families. These are the men who
congregate in the great centres to listen so eagerly to
the words of orators from the North. A new life
is opening to them. The gyves have dropped from
their wrists, and they are for the first time catch-
ing a glimpse of republican America. They will
form the grand Southern political party of the fu-
ture. They are in the vanguard of the great army
of reconstruction, and have bivouacked on their lit-
tle farms, waiting to receive orders from headquar-
ters where to march.

The politicians and the so-called aristocrats of the
South, — those who were foremost in the councils
of secession, — who were willing to risk their all
for the re-establishment of slavery, deserve no pity
from us. They risked and lost ; let them suffer
the full consequences of their guilt. With the poor,
rebellion was a delusion ; and a magnanimous victor
can afford to forgive the deluded, if their delu-
sion has been dispelled. With the educated and
wealthy, secession was a crime, and we are not
magnanimous, but weak and pusillanimous, if we

ORATION.

17

disregard it. By connecting no punishment with
open disloyalty, we put a premium on political
ambition for the futui-e. Fifty years hence, when
another dissension shall shake this country to its
centre, when the reverberations of another civil war
shall rouse the people to arms, bad men will look
back to this hour when they reckon the probable
cost of their venture. If they see that the people
have attached the highest penalty to any assault
upon the Government, they will hesitate long before
they commit themselves to the uncertainties of a
rebellion. But if, on looking back, they hear no
word of warning from such times as these ; if on
reading: the annals of America from '60 to '67,

"^b

they find no record of any punishment whatever
that stamps the- adventurer with infamy ; if they
see that confiscated estates are all returned with a
half apology on the part of the Government for
having taken them at all ; that a pardon is ob-
tained for the asking ; that the heroes of the
rebellion are feted by the people ; that the very
leader, when brought into Court, is set at liberty
Qn a petty bail, and that even that is supplied by
a chief of the party that conducted the war, and
that there can be no surer or safer or nearer road
to preferment than that which leads through a

3

18 JULY i, 1867.

rebellion, think you they will hesitate long before
committing themselves to a cause which, if it fails
utterly, leads to no disastrous consequences, and
which, regarded only as a speculation, offers a
thousand inducements to the daring] I tell you
nay.

I cannot help feeling that one of the prominent
weaknesses of a Republic is its forgetfulness of
great offences and of great offenders. The minis-
ters of justice track the criminal who has lifted his
hand against a single life until his hiding-place is
reached. They chain him to the dungeon floor ;
they summon the witnesses of the awful deed ;
they pronounce in solemn voice the sentence of
death, and do not lose sight of him until the turf
falls on his dead body. All this is right, because
the welfare of society demands it. But, alas !
when a monster criminal, urged only by personal
ambition, aims at the political life of the whole
community ; when he seeks to turn the spirit of
the age from freedom back to slavery ; when he
would raze to the ground the temple of our
national prosperity, whose corner-stones were laid
in the blood of the earlier Revolution, and every
granite block in whose walls is a memento of some
desolated home. Justice uses no harsher phrase than

ORATION. 19

when she calls him " the most colossal character
of the times," and Punishment performs no severer
duty than when she bids him retire to the banks
of the St. Lawrence to spend the gold which his
foresight has supplied.

Ah ! gentlemen, I am not cruel. I do not like
to look even upon the merited punishment of a
bad man. But this I say: There is one man
too many in America. Yonder, in every State
south of the Ohio, slumber the brave defenders of
the flag. The plough of the husbandman grates in
the soil above their beds ; there is no headstone
to tell where they sleep ; they are remembered only
in the sighs of aching hearts throughout the North ;
their only requiem is the perpetual moaning of the
wind through the cypress boughs. America, ever
busy and eager, filled with the hope of the morrow
more than with the memory of any past, holds
the great offender, the man who stood at the head
of the organized rebellion and cheered his soldiers
to their bloody work, within her fortress walls.
The people cry out for justice with thunder tones
that echo from the Pacific shore to the Atlantic
slope. But policy or cowardice, I know not which,
finds excuse for delay, and by slow degrees the
people's cry grows fainter and fainter, until at last

20 JULY 4, 1867.

when the prisoner is released, scarcely a ripple of
surprise or interest ruffles the surface of the
nation's daily life. Posterity shall read this terrible
sentence, written on the bloody page of our time :
A Eepublic attaches no penalty to a great crime.
Only petty guilt is punished ; while colossal crime
finds an apologist, if not an eulogist, and holds its
court in Canada. God grant it may not be the
seed - corn of another rebellion.

But, in looking at the population of the Southern
States, and trying to fix their place and value in
the future of America, we cannot afford to be
unmindful of the four millions of men and women
whose history is full of romance, moral courage and
faith. Claiming our admiration for their unwavering
loyalty to the flag during the darkest days of the
war, when their very ignorance seemed illumined
by the strange light of the dim hope of liberty, as
their masters' culture was darkened by the gloomy
frenzy of Slavery, and claiming also our respect
for the heroic way in which they received the
divine right to be free, we may safely prophesy
that they will do us no dishonor in any of the
trying days to come. The men, whatever their
color, who could meet together at midnight, after a
hard day's labor, in the middle of the swamp, with

O K A T I N . 21

the lash and the bloodhound as the probable
penalty, and pray for the victorious oncoming of
an army concerning which they knew nothing
except through the lying Hps of their owners and
the revealing instincts of their own hearts, are as
worthy of our confidence, and will become as trusty
elements of the Republic, as any class or clique in
the South that has outlived the rebellion. The
natural allies of Liberty are always those who have
chafed in their chains. Prejudice aside, I would
rather trust with the solemn responsibility of a vote
the rank and file of those heroes who charged at
Port Hudson, conscious that they were marching
into the Valley of Death, but doing it with the
courage of Thermopylfe, and with the hope to stem
the tide of Southern falsehood and Northern preju-
dice, than the most cultured politicians of Richmond,
who, having the power, have degraded it to personal
ambition, even though it involve Gettysburg and
AndersonvUle. Ignorance and principle are weightier
than refinement and disloyalty.

No country presents so sublime a spectacle as ours.
A whole race is uplifting its hands, and asking for
the knowledge how to live. Catching a ghmpse of
the glory of the great Repubhc of which they have
suddenly become a part, conscious of all the obstacles

'2'2 JULY 4, 186 7.

which impede their progress towards that education
which is to mould them into reliable citizens, with a
past behind them of romantic devotion and unswerving
loyalty, they only ask that we will protect them by our
laws in their rights as workmen, as traders, as mer-
chants, as fathers and as husbands, promising in return
to stand by our side in all the great political and social
struggles of the future. It is little enough to ask ; it
is a small boon to be granted by a noble people.

And the contrast between them and others to whom
we grant every political privilege is not so striking as
we think. The great West is full of loyal men who
have no other education save that they have got on the
prairies and among their herds. Europe pours her tens
of thousands every year into the territories beyond the
Mississippi. Many of them are men who are as inno-
cent of the use of the pen and the spelling-book as the
humblest black man ; but they learn enough from the
atmosphere of the country, and from the thousand acres
which they till, to join the political army of the
Repubhc, and denounce by their votes the recreant
senator and the disloyal president. They know liberty
from slavery, not by the distinctions which are made in
the dictionary, but by the practical differences evident
in society. You may not call it scholarship, but it is
wisdom ; it is knowledge acquired by actual experiment ;

ORATION. 23

and such a man can be trusted more safely than the
most elegant wire-puller of the land. So with the black
man who knows not how to spell the word slavery, but
who has felt its chains and submitted to its lash. He
knows the Confederate from the Union army to-day as
well as he did in '63. Listen ! in Atlanta the slave
owner is speaking. It is a strange sight to see him
pleading with the men whom he would have driven like
sheep a few years ago. But to-day he is no more man
than they ; and, if you measure manhood as you ought,
not so much. How insinuating is his eloquence ! He
has boasted that only the man Avho has lived with the
blacks can talk to them with any effect ; that they will
have more confidence in their former masters than in
any gentleman from the North ; that they will inevi-
tably, from the force of habit and the real love they bear
them, vote for the old overseers. Such a picture of
patriarchal life is painted, such tender ties of affection
between the whipper and the whipped are said to exist,
that we should expect the whole assemblage to vote
with unanimous force for the dear old master, who
smiles on his former slaves so benignantly, and so
politely asks for their influence in the name of the
sweet memories of auld lang syne. "Hut poor, ignorant,
degraded as they are, they are too cunning to be cheated
by promises, and too clever to be eloquently cajoled out

24 JULY 4, 18 67.

of their rights. As the chilling snow-flakes fall, so fall
his specious words. The audience is unmoved : The
speaker sees that he is speaking to a whirlwind, and is
not heeded. He puts his smile from off" his lips, fills his
face with the old look of the master and his mouth with
insolence and obscenity, and Richai-d is himself again.
I tell you, gentlemen, the colored people of the South
are better citizens of the Republic than the wily orator
who addresses them thus.

Let America do them justice, and a great reward
will be , hers. Give them, under proper restrictions,
the same restrictions which apply to their white
neighbors, the right to vote, thus rewarding the
black soldier for his loyalty to the flag, and cloth-
ing the humblest with a responsibility which will
rouse his ambition and stir within him a longing
after education, and you will reap the fruit of
your justice in a phalanx that will constitute itself
the wall of your defence in any coming struggle.
Confiscate enough of the disloyal territory to ensure
each loyal man his forty acres for a homestead;
give him land of his own under his feet, and
the flag of America over his head, and you have
nothing to fear. If any voice comes from the
great sacrifices of six bloody years, it says. Secure
the safety of the Government beyond a peradven-

ORATION. 25

ture, and reward those who have been true, from
the treasury of those who have been false. The
sentiment of mankind will defend such a policy of
severity, and the next generation of black men
will repay our justice by a million votes for
Liberty. If we are reckless enough to be unjust,
we deserve to fall; if we have the courage to be
just, we shall live forever.

I turn now to the brief consideration of the
second element of our nationality, — the Western.
No Eastern man can appreciate the vastness and
the importance of the Great West unless he has
travelled over its boundless prairies, and looked
upon the rushing, seething torrent of its commer-
cial life. One is appalled at the contemplation of
its immense territory. Single States cover an area
larger than the whole of New England. Huge
lines of railroad stretch westward from Chicago
for more than a thousand miles ; the mines of
Lake Superior, exhaustless, hold in their earthen
embrace mineral wealth that startles the world ;
coal beds underlie the rich soil everywhere, a great
reservoir of power waiting to be applied to the
work of civilization ; broad acres, whose agricul-
tural possibilities defy our power of reckoning,
stretch far beyond your straining vision ; and above

26 JULY i, 1867.

all a population restless, ambitious, and in the full
vigor of early manhood, demand our enthusiastic
admiration. These characteristics point to a future
whose magnitude will accord with the miracles
already achieved. Not always obeying the scrip-
tural injunction, not to think more highly of them-
selves than they ought to think ; believing with a
friendly kind of sincerity, a sincerity that looks
pityingly on all the inhabitants of the earth who
do not live in the West, that if there is a pivot
on which the whole world swings it is somewhere
within a few hours' ride of Chicago or St. Louis ;
they yet do exhibit a vigor, a commercial hero-
ism, a willingness to undertake new and great
projects which no other part of this country
presents.

In the war they discovered their political policy,
to save the whole country, and to make and keep
the whole a free country. Their brave boys are
under the sod of every battle-field ; their brave
women, true Spartans, tilled the soil, drove the
herds, reaped the harvests, sold the produce, in-
vested the capital, and made us proud to believe
that in America, when the great emergency comes,
our women claim the right to do our work, some-
times with hearts aching towards the field of strife,

ORATIOK. 27

while we are dressing into line, or fighting for the
grand future.

The political importance of the West cannot be
overstated. It already wields a large part of the
republican power of the country, and it will not be
many years before we shall look to the millions
near the Mississippi to crystallize into laws the hopes
and aspirations which freighted the Mayflower.
The South has as yet shown no political charac-
teristics. There is no party there whose principles
can be reckoned as forces for the future. The
ideas of the people are chaotic. We believe that
by the introduction of Northern educational institu-
tions they will sometime grow into that radical
love of liberty which is to be the bulwark of the
nation ; but to-day we are not sure of their future.
The States that lie between the James River, the
Hudson River and the great Illinois prairies are
full of political theories unsound and unsafe. Too
timid to confirm by law whatever is right in
morals, too much bound by commercial interests to
be radical in their thinking and voting, loaded
down with the debris of that kind of democracy
which thought twice before it struck a blow for
the tottering government, it will for a long while
stand neutral in the great political contests that are

28 JULY4,1867.

coming. But the Far West, with its large farms
and its large-hearted men and women, its immense
number of Germans and Scandinavians, who bring
with them to their homes the fresh, beautiful love
of liberty which compelled them to leave the old
world, if we can only plant in its midst the school-
houses and churches, the lyceums and the presses
which have been the moulding influences of the
East, can always be relied upon to stand firm for
that justice between man and man, and for those
rights and privileges which enable the poorest born
to reach and hold the highest office within the
people's gift. Nothing is more evident than this,
that New England and the West will write the
next page of American history.

I believe this, because the West is growing more
rapidly than any other part of the country. The
tens of thousands who emigrate from the poverty
of the old to the hopes of the new world, anxious
to build a home at once, naturally gravitate to
that vast territory which belongs to any one who
can level the forest and till the soU. They are a
hardy class of men and women. Full of health
and vigor and ambition, they somehow get into the
spirit of the age at once, and so, by means of
the ploughs, rakes, reaping and threshing machines,

ORATION. 29

conceived by the genius and made by the skill of
Eastern men, they are marching along the high-
Avay of industry to social position, patriotism and
wealth. What a transformation from their sur-
roundings in Europe ! There they were only serfs,
crushed into sloth or indifference by the leaden
weight of a pubHc opinion that frowned upon all
attempts to rise. They walked along the narrow
path which had been trodden by their fathers, and
thek children had no higher hope than they. The
mere drudges of society, they chafed against the
chains that held them, and at last found liberty and
hope for themselves and their little ones in the
midst of the great prairies of the West.

So in a few years the log huts on the river's
bank have disappeared and the thrifty, busy town
builds its school-houses and its churches to attest
its earnest and its hopeful work. The little village
on the edge of the lake through which a quarter
of a century ago a loaded team could scarcely find
a safe passage, has become a huge and command-
ing city, claiming the admiration of the world, and
built, not like St. Petersburg, by the command of
an imperious and obstinate king, but by the royal
will and generosity of a free and ambitious people.

If with this immense commercial vigor which

30 JULY 4, 1867.

attracts the young men of the whole country there
shall be interwoven the true spirit of republican
society and government ; if a true raihcalism in
politics, the radicalism which knows no local issues,
which recognizes no geographical lines, but loves
the whole country from ocean to ocean and from
Gulf to Lakes, shall keep pace with this magnifi-
cent and rapid progress ; and if, above all, a spirit
of justice, morality and pure religion shall crown
the increasing power of the glorious West ; if she
will only hew the corner-stones of her temples of
religion, art and commerce out of our own Ply-
mouth Eock, we will not envy her her greatness,
but give her, and the tens of thousands of our
New -England boys who are her sinew and her
strength, our hearty God-speed, proud to believe
that when a dozen generations shall have passed
away, and her ten millions have become an hun-
dred, the dear old flag, hallowed by the sacred
memories of two great struggles, will stand for the
same Hberty and the same republican justice be-
tween all classes of which it is the type to-day.
Brethren of the West, we strike palms with you.
New England greets you on this anniversary. We
see the glory that awaits you. We believe that
the tide of humanity, that has already swept five

ORATION. 31

hundred miles beyond the Father of Waters, will
keep its onward course until it grazes its herds on
the slopes of the Eocky Mountains. We can al-
ready hear the wind vibrating the Eolian wire that
flashes our smiles and tears, our hopes and fears,
to the Pacific shore ; and we can almost hear the
rattling of the train that starts from a Boston de-
pot, that winds through eastern farms, and that
strings all the great cities of the North upon the
same line of light and love, waking the echoes in
the city by the Golden Gate. Let us always
stand together, and in our greatness let us never
forget that that government alone is lasting that
knows the right and has the moral courage to
brand all traitors with infamy, and defend all man-
hood in every class and of every color.

And now, gentlemen, what shall I say — what
can I say — of the New-England element of our
American nationality 1 It is always with pride that
we contemplate the character of that influence which
comes from our educational institutions and our
political principles, and which is doing so much to
temper and give tone to the public opinion of the
whole country. Surely, it is not merely in a
boastful mood that we look on the long and glorious
vista behind us, and feel every nerve tingle in glad

32 JULY 4, 1867.

thanksgiving that we are the sons of noble sires.
The grandeur of New England lies in the fact, that
in every political and military struggle, the end has
been the advocacy of some higher political principle,
or the demand for a larger charity and a wider
freedom. New England, in the history of the
nineteenth century, with her common schools in
every street, in every village and hamlet — with
her thousand presses that scatter the daily news
over every hill and valley ; with her white
spires rising from every spot where an hundred
sturdy farmers build their huts — stands as the
type of the foremost thought and hope of
human progress. She began her career when the
Mayflower cast anchor, freighted with that precious
heroism which the Old "World could ill spare, but
which laid the corner-stone of the New World in
ecclesiastical freedom. She was true to her birth-
right when she dared to spill a brother's blood on
the field of Lexington, crying out with Eoraan
courage: Not that I love England less, but that I
love freedom more. She was not unworthy of her
ancestry when in the last struggle she lifted up her
voice before the smoke of the first battle had
rolled away, demanding, in the name of the national
sacrifice about to be placed upon the bloody altar

ORATION. 33

of war, universal liberty and the civil rights of all
classes. And to-day, as in no other part of the
country, radical thought, that seeks to destroy our
prejudices, social and political, that advocates the
plain rights of man or vs'oman, finds in our midst
a welcome and a hearing. It is our boast and
pride that Ave fear nothing except ignorance and
caste. We have built our power out of a knowl-
edge how to read and think ; we believe in nothing
so much as in the school-book ; we have no hope
for the future except that which comes from the
school-house ; we place the most injplicit trust in an
educated public opinion, and we believe that a man's
title to nobility should be sought for in his brain and
heart, and not in the color of his skin.

That public opinion is our bulwark and our
strength. It is not swayed by passion; it is not
carried too far by a popular favorite. It looked
with unmixed admiration upon Sherman as he swept
like a tornado from the mountains to the sea,
tearing up secession by the roots ; but when the
hero, for a moment only, doffed his purple and put
on the cap and bells, it stood still in mute aston-
ishment and regret, and not a single shout was
heard for one who could have the whole of our
love while he was just, but who was met by the

5

34 JULY4,1867.

people's frown the very moment he stepped beyond
the general into the politician.

A Parisian crowd follows its leader anywhere.
It has no aim, no policy, no goal. Admiring only
the brilliancy of heroic deeds, it is often led by
this will-o'-the-wisp into anarchy and chaos. The
New England people admire and applaud only the
man who represents them, who is doing brave
work for them and for their children, and whose
heroism results in larger rights. And so we have
idealized the man who was our President, not
because he was a president, but because he was
an honest man. As the ancient Greeks lifted
their mighty heroes into de mi-gods, and soon
forgot that they had ever been human, with
sharp idiosyncrasies and unpleasant peculiarities,
so have the American people lifted up theix
martyr-chief, Abraham Lincoln, so high that
we shall never again see his awkwardness, his
coarseness, but only his truthfulness, his moral
courage, his calm sagacity, and his fidelity to the
great purpose of the blood-stained hour. And, in
like fashion, we turn away in sadness, if not in
indignation, from that man, whether he be Presi-
dent, Secretary of State, or Attorney-General, who
tampers with the plain rights of the loyal, and

ORATION. 35

coquets with what is disloyal. We respect no one
except the man who is in the right, and who
shows it by throwing his political influence into the
same scale that holds the memory of half a million
dead or maimed soldiers. Your education, your
history, culminates at that point. It is your divine
right, it is a duty you owe to the past, to the
present and to the great future, to turn aside from
him, from them, from all, whatever badge of office
they wear, who are recreant to the people's will.

And so, to-day, looking on the struggle between
the Executive on the one hand, honest or dishonest,
who has forgiven the arch-traitor, who will hang
his meanest subordinate when the disgusting details
have all been told, who vetoed the Military Bill
because it gave unlimited and despotic power into
the hands of subordinate officials, and who now
removes those officials on the ground that they have
no power whatever except to disperse mobs and
quell disturbances, who does not, and who does not
intend to accord with the will of the glorious dead,
or the will of the living who gave their all for
Liberty ; and on the other hand, a simple Major-
General who does not know how to pull the wires
of political preferment, who knows only his plain
and simple duty, to remove all rebels from office,

36 JULY 4, 18fi7.

and to put in their places loyal and trnstwortliy
men, and who does that duty with a singleness of
purpose and a moral courage that stamps him a
true hero in every fibre, I say, in that great strug-
gle, the people care absolutely nothing for the
prestige of the sceptre which the one man wields,
and do not regard the weakness of the other; but,
looking only at the righteousness of the cause, cry
out with one voice, and that a voice of thunder,
Mr. President, you are wrong, and you must yield,
and General Sheridan, hero of a hundred fights,
you are right, and we Avill sustain you.

New England has always held her place in the van of
the great array of progress. While rebellion was being
organized, and all through its short, convulsive life, it
bestowed its heartiest anathemas upon us ; but now
that rebellion is dead, the people of the South are
beginning to feel that the most permanent reconstruc-
tion demands the adoption of the self-same radical
thoughts and principles which grew and flourished only
on New-England soil. That love of liberty which has
been cherished among our hills for two generations,
which the South has vainly combated both on the
floors of Congress by word and bludgeon, and on the
battle-field by sword and starvation, has at last become
the corner-stone of the new edifice, and not only the

ORATION. 37

common people but even the generals of the disbanded
army are uniting their efforts to lift it into place. It
cannot be many months before the lines of caste, and
the prejudice of color will give way to the oncoming
civilization, and South Carolina and Massachusetts,
united in the beginning in defence of a common
cause, separated for three generations by the most
implacable differences of policy and administration,
shall strike palms again to carry on the same cause
which gave us the heroism of the last century. And
gentlemen, we can to-day remember with becoming
pride that from the first hour when the old bell in
Independence Hall sent its ominous but glorious
echoes along our granite hills to this very moment,
the course of New England has been single and
consistent. Liberty and justice was the cry which
then woke the patriotism of our fathers ; liberty
and justice called their sons to arms in 1860, and
the love of liberty and justice constitute the grandeur
of New-England marjhood and womanhood to-day.
Our course has been straight on. Other States,
moved by a different policy, made a long and sad
detour from the highway of true republicanism,
trusting to the fallacies of State rights, slavery and
caste, and after wandering for ninety years, insisting
all the while that their path was the only road to

38 JULY 4, 1867.

national strength and glory, growing weaker every
day, and every day more indolent and reckless, an-
swering all questions with the knife or the pistol,
they have at last laid the whole pile of slavery's
chains aside, and come back to our path to confess that
there can be no permanent greatness and no enduring
strength except under the principles which have
always been the crown and glory of New England.
Ah, gentlemen, it is no common victory which
we have won ! It is nothing less than the triumph
of free speech, free thought throughout the conti-
nent, the adoption everywhere in America of those
truths that have always been so dear to us. Here-
after the flag shall mean more than ever. The
stain has been washed out in tears and blood ; a
new era has begun ; the gray streaks of another
and a better political day are breaking through
the clouds ; slavery is dead, freedom has been
crystallized into law ; justice has become a possi-
bility, and the ark of our national covenant, held
up in the arms of the largest-hearted heroism
and patriotism the world has yet seen, has been
carried safely through the sea of blood, and placed
in security upon the eternal rock of a tri-
umphant republicanism.

Fellow-citizens, I congratulate you upon the

ORATION. 39

achievements of the past, and the transcendent
hopes of the future. Let us look forward to the
hour, not distant, Avhen all the people of this
country shall be bound more closely than ever
before by a common interest and purpose. Our
brethren of the South, redeemed from the fatal
error of three generations, shall till the rich soil
with free hands, and confess that labor urged by
the whip can never compete with that earnest and
ambitious toil which always marks the freeman.
Our brethren of the West, hardy, sturdy, brave and
true, shall educate the millions who find a home in
the great prairies, and develop the marvellous resour-
ces of a region richer than our thought or hope,
and New England, God grant it, shall keep her
place at the head of every progressive and reforma-
tory movement. Then we shall be one people from
the shores washed by the Atlantic, to the western
slope where the mUd Pacific sings its lullaby to the
setting sun ; and from the lakes of the North to
the warm gulf of the South, while over us shall wave
the flag that means Liberty and Justice for all.

THE FUNCTIONS OF A OITT.

AK

ORATION

BEFORE THE

CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON,

FOURTH OF JULY. 186 8.

BY SAMUEL ELIOT, LL.D.

BOSTON:

ALI-EED MUDGB & SON, CITY PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET.

1868.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In Board of Aldermen, July 6, 1868.

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council are due, and
they are hereby tendered, to Samuel Eliot, LL. D., for the ex-
ceedingly appropriate, interesting and eloquent Oration delivered
before the Municipal Authorities of this City on the Fourth of
July instant, and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the
same for publication.

Passed. Sent down for concurrence.

G. W. MESSINGER, Chairman.

In Common Council, July 9, 1868.
Concurred.

CHAS. H. ALLEN, President.

Approved, July 10, 1868.

NATHL. B. SHUETLEFP, Mayor.

A true copy.

Attest :

S. F. McCLEARY, City Clerk.

ORATION.

BOSTON, OLD AND NEW.

The Boston that hailed the early birthdays of the
nation has almost passed away. A few of its historic
buildings keep their places, but with changed aspects
and generally changed associations. Three or four
of its churches remain, but in localities so altered as
to alter them, and even to forebode their removal. Its
mansions have completely vanished. Their stately
fronts, theix fair proportions of height and breadth,
their wide halls, easy stairs, massive wainscots and
graceful alcoves, the trees before them, the vines climb-
ing their porches, the flowers blooming beneath their
windows, the terraces and gardens surrounding them,
linger only in remembrance. Remembrance itself but
faintly recalls the streets like those of present villages,
the open spaces then styled greens, the pastures where
cattle browsed, the fields unoccupied except in the
playtime of children, the shores that met the water
with lips it did not shrink from kissing. The very

b JULY 4, 1868.

hills wliicli gave the place its first name, instead of
having proved everlasting, have sunk beneath the
spade, their loftiness brought literally to the dust.
Even the sea washing our peninsula, no more

" TJnchangeable save to its wild waves' play,"

finds its azure brow wrinkled with walls and marked
by lines of building where fluttered, years ago, a gar-
land of snoAvy sails.

Another Boston has arisen on the old foundations
and the new. Once a single neighborhood, it is now
a group of neighborhoods ; once a society of personal
acquaintances, now a population of indistinct connec-
tions, where men cannot inquire into one another's
aff'airs with the same success as of yore ; a scene for-
merly of limited, latterly of expanded action, of customs
shaped according to a broader rule, of enterprises laid
out upon a larger scale, of relations more complex,
systems more varied, standards more aspiring ; no
longer a town but a city, with all the present, all the
future prospects of which a city is the centre. Imag-
ine a citizen of the Kevolution, or of the War of 1812,
returning hither to find his birthplace buried beneath
a warehouse, his church swallowed up in an abyss of
traffic, an avenue where he skated, and a long vista of
reef-stone fa9ades where he bathed. Follow him on

ORATION. 7

the round of our institutions, especially those where
foreign tongues prevail over the native, and pieces of
the Old World appear to have fallen on the New. He
might find cause to think Boston as unlike its former
self as some of its statues to their originals. Then
hear him warned, as we are, that the city is declining,
and that unless its capitalists provide it with half a
dozen new railroads to the interior, and its harbor
commissioners give it a new channel to the sea, its
doom is sealed. Ah, he might exclaim, it needs the
opening of a vein or two to reduce its symptoms of
plethora. Signs of decay they cannot be ; these sights
and sounds, these throngs, these labors, these excite-
ments are not the hectic of decline. Would he not be
right"? Does not the handwriting upon our walls
promise better things than the overthrow of the city,
or the transfer of its prosperity to its neighbors "?

Not content with her own expansion, Boston has
lately taken unto herself her sister Roxbury. Not a
marriage exactly, but a joining of hands, an endowing
each other with their worldly goods (to say nothing of
their debts), it has made of twain one city. Common
memories, common associations and common interests
prepared the connection ; now that it is consummated,
they foreshow its happiness. Brought to-day before
the national altar, and blending in the national festival

8 JULY i, 1868.

for the first time, let the union of the sisters and of
the sisters' sons be confirmed in these hours of patriotic
commemoration.

AGE OF GREAT CITIES.

In becoming a city, Boston shares in a characteristic
movement of the period. Our age has been called the
Age of Great Cities, and there is as good reason for
this name as for any other which it bears. For the
cities of the time are not only greater, taken together,
than those of former times, but more numerous, more
widely spread, and above all, more active in the work
which in all ages falls chiefly to them.

This work is civilization, a term that cannot be ex-
plained but by going back to its Latin root, where we
find the citizen, and with him, the city. Men scatter,
in order to discover ; they concentrate, in order to civ-
ilize. When the city brings them together, mingling
their numbers and their interests, it sets them across
the dividing line between barbarism and civilization.
It carries them farther and farther into the civilized
region by augmenting their resources and enabling
them to meet the multiplying demands of their new
situation. Civilization is a costly process, especially in
the modern era. To all the expenses it involved in the

OEATION. 9

days of old, to all tlie operations of goYernment, all
the luxuries of society, all the splendors of the arts
and sciences, are added in our day the claims of public
education, the exhaustless purposes of charity and
faith. Every reform of this generation, every hope of
soothing the afiiicted or recovering the lost, every eflFort
to make sunshine in a shady place, is expensive, often
lavishly expensive, though not a dollar be wasted,
but dollar upon doUar be saved in the end. No civil-
izing agency can do much without a fvmd to draw
upon. Philosophy used to shake her head, insisting
that nothing was surer to ruin a people than their
becoming rich. But she confesses now-a-days that
poverty is a greater drawback than wealth upon social
advancement. What Burke said of public virtue is
equally true of civilization, that " being of a nature
magnificent and splendid, instituted for great things
and conversant about great concerns, it requkes abun-
dant scope and room, and cannot spread and grow under
confinement, and in circumstances straitened, narrow
and sordid." It was the love, not the use of money
which the Apostle pronounced the root of all evil; the
use that implies no love for it in itself is the root of
much good. If the history of civilized nations teaches
any lesson, if travel among the uncivilized brings back
any testimony, it is the necessity of wealth to civiliza-

10 JULY 4, 1868.

tion. For this there must be concentration, for this
the solitary must be set in families, families in com-
munities, and communities in cities.

The Age of Great Cities therefore, signifies the Age
of Great Civilization. It is a title which the cities
may be proud to give, and the age to wear, a title not
merely of grandeur or power, but of liberality and
tenderness, including all sorts and conditions of
humanity, its sufferings as well as its triumphs, and its
" stUl, sad music" as well as its loudest hallelujahs.

FUNCTIONS OF A CITY.

If Boston is to be among the great cities of civiliza-
tion, she must do more than annex her subiurbs or fill
in her water lots, more than build her blocks or rear
her monuments, more, much more, than swell the
volume of her taxes ; for neither territory nor popula-
tion, neither architecture nor any other art, not even
that of the assessor, establishes the greatness of a city.
To this, internal growth is indispensable, the powers
increasing with the frame, the mind and the heart ex-
panding with the body, the immaterial elements corre-
sponding with the material. A city is no inorganic
mass growing by simple accretion, but an organism of
various and mysterious forces developing from within.

ORATION. 11

Its functions determine its rank, just as the classifica-
tion of any living being is determined. They consti-
tute its character, its history. If great, they render it
great, and it ascends with as little effort as the dawn to
a place among the cities of civilization.

FUNCTIONS NOT OF A CITY.

There are some, indeed, many things which a city
cannot do. It has no direct share in the labors of
which the country is the natural field. It cultivates
no land, produces no food, not even the water which
it needs. It has no mines to open, no fabrics, com-
pared with those of the great manufacturing centres,
to call its own. It does not act upon nature, except
to obliterate it, or upon most of the products of
nature until they have been worked up elsewhere.
For what it receives from abroad, it offers in return
the values produced by its citizens as artisans, mer-
chants, or members of the different professions, using
these words in their broadest sense. Neither does
nature act upon the city, or upon the people within
its borders, for here they are beyond her reach, beyond
her skyey or earthy influence, save in their public
gardens, and even there, the builders are apt to
crowd upon the gardeners.

12 JULY 4, 1868.

Furthermore, there are many things which, though
they may be done in a city, may not be done by a city,
but by its citizens. Municipal energy has one sphere,
individual energy another, and much the wider, em-
bracing aiFairs of every kind and powers of every
degree. So far from substituting the city for its citi-
zens in their undertakings, they should be substituted
for it in any of its undertakings which they can
safely assume. The newspapers of a few days or
weeks ago published a letter from one of the best
friends our country has in Europe, saying how much
he was impressed by the diiference between the town
or commune in France which manages its citizens,
and the town in the United States which its citizens
manage. It is the difference between centralization
and self-government, between the system which makes
a man a puppet, and that which makes him a free
agent, between that which fits him more and more
for subjection, and that which fits him more and more
for liberty. Paris has been called the Bostonian's
paradise, but never the Bostonian's city. Nor would
he ever choose it as the scene of his civil existence ;
for this, he wants opportunities of action which the
French capital, with all its magnificence, cannot
supply.

ORATION. 13

POLITICAL FUNCTIONS.

The functions of a city are, in the first place,
political. The earliest city, whether that named
Enoch or another, was the earliest political lever to
move the world. Throughout the ancient generations,
the weapons with which they plucked bright honor
were their cities, within whose walls their power
centred, and in whose names their fame extended
over the earth. As the chief means of defence to
their inhabitants, they gradually became the means
of such freedom as was then possible, sometimes the
mere negation of despotism, sometimes the positive
assertion of nascent liberties. All that was freest in
the politics of antiquity, all that gave them general
animation, sprang directly or indirectly from the city.
The times were so unripe for any broader principle,
for anything like modern nationality, that every
attempt at such appears to have failed the moment
it was made. Only a local organization like a
municipality could establish itself in a period when
democracy was fierce and absolutism yet fiercer, when
fire and the sword were the portion of states, and
the clouds under which men contended seldom turned
forth a silver lining. It was an imperfect liberty.

14 JULY 4, 1868.

not merely in being municipal, without any national
admixture, but also in being the monopoly of a
ruling class, or in other words, the liberty of the
ruler. Its hour soon came, and it fell, but not in
lifeless ruin. Out of its crumbled foundations, later
ages derived much of the material for their own
institutions, and when the time arrived for the city
to be restored, the free towns of the Continent and
the boroughs of England appeared, not like their
forerunners, in the grasp of a dominant order, but
open to the middle or burgher classes, plebeian rather
than patrician, the cradles of the Commons. English
history has no more stirring narrative than that which
tells how, when the crown was on an imbecile head,
and most of the higher offices were in strangers'
hands, when the Charter was habitually violated, and
the rights of the nation were incessantly invaded,
until the public distresses culminated in civil war,
then, close upon the first victory of the national
party, their leader, Simon de Montfort, summoned
the boroughs to send their representatives to the
Parliament of 1265. There municipal freedom and
national at last met together, and there, as they
clasped hands, began that movement which, more
than any other earthly influence, has controlled the

ORATION. 15

modern states, and given to some of them the pos-
session, to all of them the hope of liberty.

Of the many subsequent blows struck for freedom
by the Commonalty of England, none was more
effective than their colonization of these American
shores. Here, where every good seed from the Old
World was destined to spring up and bear a hundred-
fold, the city, or as it used to be termed, the town,
grew into larger life. No longer the heritage of a
single class, upper or lower, it became that of the
whole community, around whose private and public
resorts it spread in overhanging clusters of freedom.
It was at once a refuge and an inspiration to our
ancestors. It confirmed their habits of law and
order ; it strengthened them in then- colonial as well
as their municipal relations, and prepared them for
the day when the tempest lowered from beyond the
sea. The town here was always free, enacting its
own ordinances, choosing its own magistrates, and
administering its own affairs. It felt the heavy hand
of the mother country, not as the town, but as a part
of the colony, on which alone the immediate oppres-
sions of crown or parliament descended. The for-
eigner who has best divined our institutions, Alexis
de Tocqueville, said, years ago, that the sovereignty

16 JULY 4, 1868.

of the people in the town was " not only an ancient,
but a primitive state " in America.

So, when the tempest came, and the air was thick
with revolution, the towns of the threatened colonies
stood firm. Boston unhesitatingly placed herself at
their head. Her Town House, — let us be thankful
that its shell, if nothing more, is spared, — was "the
first scene," as John Adams declared, " of the first act
of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain,"
when James Otis, " a flame of fijre," blazed out in burn-
ing argument against Writs of Assistance, and "breathed
into the nation the breath of life." " Then and there,"
exclaimed Adams, " the chUd Independence was
born." It was to Boston that British troops were first
despatched, a century ago this very year, to crush the in-
fant Liberty. It was here, below the same buUding in
which the birth occurred, that the first baptismal blood
was shed in the massacre of March. It was here, in the
waters of the Bay, that the tea which symbolized par-
liamentary taxation was poured out on a December
night in one deep draught for freedom. It was here that
the Port Bni, following Xerxes' example, would have
scourged the very waves for sharing in the rebellion of
the people. And here, at the breaking of the day, the
morning stars of Lexington and, nearer yet, of Bunker
Hill, shone in the horizon, until the sunrise fell on Dor

OKATION. 17

Chester Heights, "where he whom the nation gave to
deliver the town, achieved his first great victory. All
through these years of trial, all through the years that
came after, Boston never faltered :

" Thy spirit, Independence, let me share,
Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye !
Thy steps I follow with my hosom bare,
Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.''

As Boston followed then, so she did again in the
yet more terrible storm, when the telegraph brought
from Washington a demand for fifteen hundred men ;
when the first to respond, three Marblehead companies,
marched from the railway to Faneuil Hall in rain and
sleet which the welcome-shouting crowds seemed to
mistake for sunshine ; when Boston troops were arm-
ing, Boston men giving, Boston women working, Bos-
ton children sympathizing; when the fiag streamed
from every staff and above almost every door, its
sacred hues crowning the city with a halo of undying
patriotism ; when our heroic Governor had no need to
speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward,
for forward, of their own accord, they plunged into the
red sea of war, so that he could write back to Wash-
ington on -the self- same day of the call for aid, " I find
the amplest proof of a warm devotion to the country's
cause on every hand to-day," words that might serve

2*

18 JULY 4, 1868.

for a national watchword as long as the nation lasts ;
then Boston, in common with Massachusetts, gave full
proof of her fidelity, not only to her own liberty, but
to the liberty of the Union.

The political functions of a city are never confined
to its own limits. It belongs to the nation, and if true
to its duties, nay if true to its instincts, it must minister
to the national well-being. Montaigne said he was a
Frenchman only by virtue of Paris. We are not
Americans only by virtue of Boston, and yet the better
Bostonians we are, the better Americans we shall be.
Charles Eiver does not more surely tend to Massachu-
setts Bay, or the Bay to the ocean, than the city built
by these waters tends to the nation. If, like the child
who held the shell to his ear, we have ever listened to
the city and its voices, we have heard

" Murmurings wHereby the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with its native sea," '

that sea, the Indivisible Eepublic. Our local institu-
tions have often been charged with weakening the cen-
tral government. But wherever they have not been
tampered with, they have written out a record over
which they and the Union may well rejoice together.

OEATION. 19

EDUCATIONAL FUNCTIONS.

The educational functions of a city are at once a
cause and an effect of the political. A cause, since
education is necessary to liberty ; and an effect, since
liberty is necessary to education or to general
education. Free communities, above all others,
need free schools, where the young can be pre-
pared for the liberties into which they are to
enter. On the other hand, free schools need free com-
munities from which they will receive the requisite
support almost without the asking. Elsewhere they
have an artificial, here a natural life, in keeping with
the life around it, set in a kindly soil, fed by the air
and moisture of congenial skies. From schools abroad,
ours may borrow a theory here, a practice there ; from
some, thoroughness ; from others, refinement ; from all,
whatever superior traits may distinguish them. But
from none, from no educational institutions in the
world, have ours anything to borrow with regard to the
public spirit which maintains them. In this, ours
easily take the lead. Such a connection as exists
between them and the homes around them, such a
harmony in the purposes of the teacher, the child and
the parent, such a unity of educational and social

20 JULT4,1868.

interests, is unknown under exclusive institutions.
The free country and the free school are like mother
and daughter to each other.

Born of the common will and nurtured by the com-
mon affection, our schools remain a part of the com
munity rather than of the Government. To them, as
to any other constituency, the city lends a helping
hand, founding them where they are needed, and
administering them as their circumstances require.
One asks for organization; another already organized,
for a new building, or, if preferring bread to stone, for
a new course of instruction ; whatever their demands,
reasonable and at times unreasonable, they are almost
sure to be gratified. Two centuries and a half of such
care, honorable alike to the city that has given and to
the schools that have received it, are nearly past, and
it is as unwearied as ever.

This relation between the city and its schools renders
their improvement practicable at any time. To reform
is not to upheave, but to establish them, provided only
that the reformation is wisely executed. Perhaps the
great principles of education are not so mutable as they
are sometimes regarded; easily shaken, they do not
appear to be easily overthrown or even displaced. But
with respect to many of their applications, an opinion
is generally forming, if not formed, that these should

ORATION. 2i

be changed. Teacher and pupil alike desire it ; vigor
of body or of mind, in both, depends upon it ; the cul-
ture of the school and of the community is to be de-
termined by it; why should it be delayed'? Educa-
tional reform is not like a certain mountain that refuses
to be pierced, despite the profusions of legislatures and
the profits of contractors. It is a comparatively gentle
slope which our chariot wheels may surmount with-
out much difficulty, if they do not tarry too long.
" While you are considering," said Dr. Johnson,
"which of two things you should teach your child first,
another boy has learned them both." We may yet be
deliberating what improvement to begin with, when
others have already eff'ected it, and many another after
it. Each obstacle, if not removed, increases ; each
evU that might be checked, but is not, becomes more
and more portentous. The longer our faces are set in
a wrong du-ection, the longer it will take to turn them
in the right one. At the coronation of George III.,
the Lord Steward had trained his horse to back dovm
the hall after the presentation of a cup to the kiug,
but the steed backed up the hall, and brought the
steward with his back to his sovereign. It is a pity to
train our children to walk backwards, a pity to teach
them anything which they will have to unlearn here-
after.

22 JULY 4, 1868.

It seems as if the system which has done so much
might do yet more. It lies somewhat too motionless
upon the waters ; the mast creaks, the sails flap, and
the helm appears to be in an uncertain grasp. Bell
after bell strikes, and the watch is called. Let it be
the beginning of a new effort to set the ship upon her
course, and to carry her, with her precious freight of
children, to shores as yet unknown in education.

For the majority of our childi-en, their mere pre-
sence, persuasive in freshness and promise, the anxie-
ties of parents, the sympathies of friends, are powerful
means to bring about all desirable reforms. But for
others whose aspect has no charm, whose prospects
excite no enthusiasm, whose parents and friends are
often their worst enemies, for these, children of the
streets rather than of the schools, many a voice must
be uplifted, before they are cared for as they should be.
Boston never did a better deed than in providing in-
struction for her newsboys and others like them. She
has but to follow up that step, and either to open new,
or adapt existing schools to all her children, in order
that they may be snatched from the dangers which
waylay them. Should any, thus enabled to choose the
good, prefer the evil, still let them be treated as child-
ish, not as hardened offenders. You knock truancy on
the head by sending the truant to the reformatory; but

OEATION. 23

you also run the risk of stunning liis better nature for-
ever. No reformatory, however faithfully administered,
can put off the likeness of a prison- or put on the like-
ness of a home ; yet nothing but a home can enable
this spirit, parched by years of desolation, to bear blos-
soms of childhood. The more of a vagrant he is, the
more he needs domestic dews. Offspring of misery or
sin, brought by the stream to the foot of our Palatine,
the wolf will be his only nurse until the shepherd
carries him to the woman's arms. Instead of being
shut up with those who have perhaps fallen lower than
he has done, he should find the discipline he needs in
mingling with others unlike himself and learning the
sweet lessons of love.

The principle of attraction, as wonderworking in
education as in any other cause, has yet to expand in
our schools. Make them more winning, and this
makes them more commanding. Give them gentle-
ness and this gives them strength. Whatever increases
their power of attracting, increases also their power of
teaching and governing their pupils. " I may be drawn
by a thread," said a Rhode Island representative in a
long-forgotten Congressional skirmish, " but I never
can be driven by the club of Hercules." The less of
the club and the more of the thread in the management
of our schools, the deeper they will be set in the affec-

24 JULY 4, 1868.

tions of their children ; the deeper, too, in the affec-
tions of all who hold their children dear. Were
there no other reason than the beauty introduced by
it, the musical instruction now forming" a part of our
system would deserve to be cherished. But it has
other recommendations, as a means of discipline, as
a development of human faculties, and as an illustra-
tion of Divine harmonies. . A city ought to be the
home of all the arts. They owed their first great
triumphs to the cities of antiquity, their next to the
mediaeval cities ; why should they not owe their latest
to the cities of the modern age 1 And where, if they
are taught among us, can the first lessons in some
of them be more fittingly given than in our schools ]
Great artists would not be multiplied ; but troops of
contented pupils would be. They could not but be
thankful for anything to tone down the sharp out-
lines of their training, to soften the perspective of
their studies, and throw a tender glow about the
far-off summits. Their intellectual atmosphere would
be both lovelier and healthier with a little haze.

Boston has a model of her own to guide her upward
steps in education. An institution founded but the
other day, yet rising as if its foundations had been
laid with the city's, has placed itself at the head of

ORATION. 25

our educational institutions, and lifted them at once
to a higher level.

"No workman steel, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung."

But not, as the poet's next line begins, " Majestic
silence." Rather, majestic speech, the speech of ages
before the Temple, of times remoter and nearer, of
the very time in which we live. " I have sat before
that picture," said a monk pointing to a Last Supper
in his convent, " year after year, and when I see the
changes among us and the unchanged figures there,
I think that we, not they, must be the shadows."
So in comparison with the speech of books, the tongue
of man, however loud, seems silence. They speak
with the authority of the past, he with the uncertainty
of the present ; they speak of things abiding, he
of things passing away. Would the city fulfil her
ofiice as an educator, would she ascend, and lead her
children with her, to a higher culture than has yet
been reached, she has but to turn to her Public
Library. It stands fresh from the hands of the ben-
efactors who have endowed it and the still greater
benefactors who have administered it, yet already
the centre of our educational system, the source of
light and heat to every school and every scholar

26 JULY 4, 1868.

around it, with no cloud between them and its inspi-
ration.

CHARITABLE FUNCTIONS.

The charitable functions of a city partly mingle with
and partly transcend its educational. It ministers in
teaching, it ministers also in relieving its dependent
classes. Many of the ancient cities were represented on
their coins as women with crowns and flowing robes, and
many a modern city wears a crown of mercy upon her
head, a robe of charity about her form, while at her feet,
in place of the captive or the victim, a sufferer waits for
bread, if he is hungry ; for care, if sick ; for shelter, if
an outcast. Eairest among the features of the present
civilization is its sympathy. Instead of exposing the
foundling, it opens an asylum ; instead of tramp-
ling down the weak in body or mind, it gathers them
in hospitals ; instead of hurrying the convict to hope-
less imprisonment or yet more hopeless death, it
watches over his reformation ; instead of letting want
and despair run then- course, it seeks to close their
sources and prevent them from overtaking their prey.
In all these labors, the city, as the handmaid of civili-
zation, bears her part. Much as she leaves to her
citizens, there remains much which no power but hers
can accomplish. Sufi'erers from fault or suff"erers from

OKATION. 27

misfortune, the suffering classes require a hand to
control as well as to succor them. Not the charity
alone, but the authority of the city is wanted in dealing
with the sinned against and the sinning, the man with-
out manhood, the woman without womanhood, the child
without childhood, the long, long files of degradation
that straggle through the streets, starting at every
sound, fleeing from every shadow, panting for rest
though they ask it not, thirsting for compassion though
they accept it not, a multitude of which, however
shameful, no city doing her best to save them, need
be ashamed. Persevere, long-seeking, long-baffled
mother, relieve thy children, relieve the stranger
within thy gate, and the ear that hears thee shall
bless thee, the eye that sees thee shall bear witness to
thee in thy work of charity.

RELIGIOUS FUNCTIONS.

The religious functions of a city, above all others,
are necessary to its completeness. With no establish-
ment, no observances, no doctrines of its own to main-
tain as a system, it has a spirit 'to keep up, a
determination to be just to man, a desire to be faithful
to God, which is, in the truest sense, a religious spirit.
Without it, the existence of a city is a disgrace, and its

28 JULY4,1868.

magnitude a calamity. The poet, struck by tlie cor-
ruptions of London, a century ago, asserts,

" God made the country and man made the town."

He was as wide of the mark as if he had said that God
made the country, and man the garden. Men lay out
their streets and put up their buildings ; they cannot
create the site or the material, much less themselves
the builders, in whom, rather than in earth or stone,
the town consists. If our city means anything by the
motto she borrows from King Solomon, it is that the
Divine Hand led the fathers and still directs the sons.
She confesses, therefore, that she is not her own, but
His who has fashioned her from the beginning until
now. Plutarch speaks of Sparta as seeming " not to
be a policy or commonweal, but rather a certain holy
place, and order of religion." What Sparta seemed, let
Boston be. As Eve appeared to him for whom she
was created, so let this city of ours appear to those for
whom she has been created,

" heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love."

Faith in the unseen can alone fill out the seen. The
religious functions of a city can alone perfect its other
functions; political, educational or charitable, their

ORATION. 29

higliest motive, their noblest performance centres in
religion, and that religion, Christianity.

TRUTH AND LIBERTY.

All human institutions derive their strength from a
source beyond themselves. Liberty itself avails only
so far as it is nourished by truth.

" He is the freeman whom the truth makes free."

That is the free state vs^hich the truth brings into the
world, and guides in infancy and maturity. Like the
thrice repeated action which the great master of ancient
eloquence declared essential to his art, truth first, truth
last, truth always, not thrice but perpetually repeated,
is the essence of liberty. It is the soul of the body
politic, the life of the city and the nation.

Just at this moment, it seems to be in peril among us.
Warlike struggles over, warlike virtues no more in
demand, something too much like reaction is setting in.
Our statesmanship wavers ; our general and local ad-
ministrations drift shoreward ; corruption surges on this
side, vnckedness on that, and the currents drive in upon
the breakers. Party usurps the place of country ; irre-
sponsible bodies, like the caucus and the ring, substitute
themselves for constituted authorities ; combinations
treated as overpowering, but which one hour of general

30 JULY 4, 1868.

uprising would rend asunder, crowd hard upon individ-
ual independence. Was it for this we gave our treas-
ure, our labor, our blood, for this that our dear heroes
died ? Are those years of sacrifice already forgotten,
that these years of conspiracy and spoil are come so
soon 1 It is no hour for flattery. It is no day for idle
exultation. One word, one thought of truth, one decla-
ration in her behalf keeps this anniversary of another
declaration better than a thousand careless huzzas.

Neither our war, nor its greatest victory, the act of
emancipation, neither reconstruction nor suffrage, neither
old institutions nor new, can bear fruit in a half-hearted
freedom. No longer partial, but total, independence is
to spread like light throughout the nation. Emerging
from its old eclipse, the slave restored to freedom, and
the freeman to consistent principle, it is to suffer no
new eclipse. The republic is to be a reality at last. It
is to prove worthy of the toils endured for it, the
wounds and deaths encountered, the tears fallen and
still falling, the shadows never to be chased away in
this world. The least that can be done by those who
have not suffered, is to abstain from marring the work
ot those who have suffered. They ought to do more,
infinitely more, and suffer, if need be, in their turn, that
not a single pang may have been felt, not a single loss
sustained in vain.

ORATION. 31

Would that tlie lines from yonder City Hall to tlie
church, towers which call out our defences against con-
flagration, were paralleled by lines to sound a yet louder
alarm against the fires that smoulder beneath our insti-
tutions. Peal upon peal, in the full stir of day or the
sUent watches of night, would ring out an irresisti-
ble summons. Call us, call the city, call the nation, to
manliness, honor, devotion to pure ends by pure means,
call us to the victories of peace, yet more renowned
than those of war, and where her white plume leads,
there let us follow, to achieve the truth, the stainless
and deathless truth of American Liberty.

AN

ORATION

DELIVEUro BEFORE THE

CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON,

FIFTH OF JUL^5r, 1869,

IN CELEBRATION OF THE

^mely-l^irtr ^itaibcrsarg of American Jntr^penbena,

BY HON. ELLIS W. MORTON.

BOSTON :
ALERED MUDGE & SON, CITY PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET.

186 9.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In Board of Aldermen., July 6, 1869.

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented
to the Hon. Ellis W. Morton for the eloquent Oration delivered
by him before the municipal authorities of Boston, on the occa-
sion of the Ninety-third Anniversary of the Declaration of
American Independence, and that he be requested to furnish a
copy of the same for publication.

Passed. Sent down for concurrence.

BENJ. JAMES, Chairman.

In Common Council, July 8, 1869.
Concurred.

WM. G. HARRIS, President.

Approved, July 9, 18G9.

NATH'L B. SHURTLEFF, Mayor.

A true copy.

Attest :

S. F. McCLEARY, City Clerk.

ORATION,

To God, to the Fathers, to the preservers of
our Nation's Independence, are due reverent and
grateful acknowledgments in this joyful commemora-
tion of the brightest day in our history. The flame
of the new-found liberty Avhich illumined that day
is an inextinguishable beacon to souls oppressed
who dare dream " that all men are created equal ;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights." A journey in discovery of the
causes which culminated in our deed of self-manumis-
sion, would lead only to an uncertain end. The
Declaration of Independence was not a single fruit ;
it was a harvest. Inscrutable Providence had mys-
teriously sown the seed. The precious germs were
scattered alike by the burning hands of martyrs
and the unconscious hands of tyrants. It was the
will of Heaven that the falling dew of the Fourth
day of July, 1776, should christen our "Free
and Independent States."

But we may conceive that had the religion of
our fathers been the growth of wore genial nurture,

6 J U L Y 5 , 1 8 6 9 .

or had its exercise been unrestricted, had their
uncompromising faith been tried in the develop-
ment of a less rugged home, had George the
Third spared his beneficent oppression, then had
the problem of self-government been to us unsolved.
" Sweet are the uses of adversity."

The Omnipotent veils the fulness of His designs.
The Puritans, who challenged the perils of the sea
to wrest religious liberty from the hardships of an
unknown land, knew as little of religious liberty as
the men of the First Continental Congress knew
of civil liberty.

The religious liberty of the Puritans was a right
to worship in their own way — a denial of the right
to others. The practice of their austere devotions
fixed the limit of the freedom they would have
planted. They were unsuspicious of the bounty of
the soil upon which they set their altars. They
dreamed not that the fire of their fierce convictions
would burn into a mellow light, in which all Chris-
tian hearts might approach Deity by their own paths.
Those uncompromising spirits were elected to a
peculiar work, and the fearlessness, the wisdom, the
fidelity, which marked their labor, the reverence
which hallowed it, have won the favor of God and
the praises of man.

ORATION. 7

The period including 1774 and 1776, was
freighted with blessings so rich, that those noble
men, who were alternately demanding and imploring
civil rights, recognized them not. They realized not
the robust growth of the tree of liberty in their
midst, till their witless monarch and his ministers,
as a reward for their unswerving fealty, shook its
fruit into their laps. This was the period that gath-
ered the first Continental Congress ; that Congress,
by which " all old religious jealousies were con-
demned as low-minded infirmities " ; that Congress,
in which Patrick Henry uttered the " hope that
future ages would quote their proceedings with
applause " ; that Congress, in which the student may
clearly trace the title of nearly every chapter of
our political history — it was the period in which the
summoning rays of the lanterns in the tower of the
North Church, signalled the advent of unknown
civil and religious liberties ; it was the period which
called that other Congress to herald your indepen-
dence, and mine.

I have said that the men of 1774 knew not of
civil liberty. To them liberty was an English pro-
duction. Their hope was of English liberty. Just
men, suff'eriug injustice, their eyes opened not to the
omnipotence of justice.

8 JULY 5,1809.

Franklin, WasMngton, Jefferson, the immortal
author of the Declaration, all disclaimed a dispo-
sition for independence. But the appeals unheard,
the petitions rejected by the King of Britain, were
answered by the King of Kings. To that loyalty
which acknowledged the sovereignty, while it resisted
the oppression, of the mother country, He offered a
Eepublic. Patriotism then became an unconquerable
force.

How shall we honor the men and the virtues of
those days 1 Would we render tribute to the most
upright, to the most patriotic, to the wisest, to
the most temperate, to the most charitable, to the
bravest, to the most modest, — all had their
represelitative in Washington. " If you speak
of solid information and sound judgment," said
Patrick Henry, " Washington is the greatest man
of them all." John Adams attested the worth
of " the modest and virtuous, the able, generous,
and brave general." The chosen of all the Colonies,
he was particularly the choice of New England.
A Virginian, he belonged to Massachusetts. He
it was, who desired to " raise one thousand men,
subsist them at his own expense, and march at their
head for the relief of Boston." He it was, who
gained Boston from the enemy, and to whom the

ORATION. 9

selectmen said : " Next to the Divine power we
ascribe to yonr wisdom that this acquisition has
been made with so little effusion of blood." His
was the sovereign character of the Revolution. To
him, then, let us pay the homage due to the men
whose sturdy virtue moulded determined courage
into the rare deeds which have made us Indepen-
dent Americans.

It is most fitting that Boston should have
set up an enduring figure of this embodiment of
the goodness and greatness which distinguished
the past, and should pilot the future days of the
Republic. Happy has been the genius of the
Boston sculptor in fashioning the plastic clay to
such happy service. Fortunate have been our
artisans who taught the willing metal to daguerro-
type his creation. That work shall be our pride,
the admiration of all. The treasures of the earth,
the conception of the artist, the handicraft of the
artificer have gladly contributed to reproduce the
form ; let society reproduce the qualities of Wash-
ington. Said Gate, "The best way to keep good
acts in memory is to refresh them with new."

But we are hi-ought to another period in the recol-

2

10 JULY 5, 1869.

lection that his devoted services had been well-nigh
wasted, but for the unlimited loyalty of the Saviors
of the Union : those whose presence in our midst is
our honor ; those whose headstones are their grateful
country's most sacred souvenirs.

In the ground prepared for the institutions which
made our declared independence a reality, there was
left undisturbed the most baneful poison known to
political toxicology.

A revel in the records of the unexampled prosperity
of the new nation, whose lavish resources ministered,
in every variety of climate, from every quality of soil,
out of the native storehouses of noble and baser
metals, by grand rivers and outstretched coasts, to
wealth and happiness, and whose government was
benign, was embittered by the exposure of the rank
growth of slavery. The good and the wise viewed
the spread of this evil root with dismay and per-
plexity. In 1860, the injustice of stolen labor re-
ceived a decided recognition in the triumph of a party
pledged to a lawful resistance of its introduction into
unpolluted soil. Then was manifested the accursed
sway of the "peculiar institution." So subtle had
been its noxious influence, nursing sensuahty, indo-
lence and ease, that it was regarded as the vital
support of the South. Slavery was the balm; free-

OEATION. 11

dom the poison. Secession was to be the antidote of
freedom; it proved the antidote of slavery. The
haughty rebels attempted parricide; they committed
suicide. As captives of war the slaves were originally
enforced into bondage, and by a retributive justice, as
" captives of war " they first gained a deliverance from
bondage.

The events which made every day an epoch, from
the lowering of the insignia of the Union on Sum-
ter to the raising again of those same colors, are
too freshly stored in the memories of all, far too
deeply graven in the hearts of many, to invite then-
recital.

Reviewing in a glance the thrilling drama of those
days, we behold again the lurid scenes of treason
in gloomy contrast with the spontaneous uprisings of
loyalty. We renew the few days of doubt and fear
struggling against ever contending, ever dominant
hope and confidence.

We see the arms of the Union, now in the halo
of victory, and then in the darkness of defeat,
always unfiinching, until at last, over the dread
horrors of war and its unexampled barbarities,
rises the sun of triumph and peace.

The integrity of the Eepublic is solemnly vindi-
cated, the crime of rebellion is terribly rebuked,
the wrong of slavery is sadly expiated.

12 JULY 5, 1869.

" Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." Of human
vengeance none has followed the traitors. It was
foreign to the noble man chosen as the assassin's
victim ; it was unexecuted by the people to whom
he Avas endeared. When from sickening rehearsals
of the atrocities of Andersonville, of Libby and of
Belle Isle, the student of future days would turn,
in hot resentment, to the pages of retaliation, he
will find them not. His surprise will associate
with the wonder of his discovery that England, whose
outcries against the sin of bondage had been as
violent as they were hollow, was first to recognize
the Slave Confederacy. Indulgence has followed at
the heel of victory. The people have worn their
joy with forbearance, their grief with charity.

" High treason," said Bacon, " is not written in
ice ; that when the body relenteth, the impression
should go away."

The blot of rebellion has soaked up too much
blood, the stains of its cruelties are too deep to be
eifaced. They are only hidden by the curtain of
peace. Woe to them who shall first draw its folds
aside. The war has seriously tested, though not
measured, the nation's capacities ; it has proved the
constitution elastic enough to bend and too toush
to break ; it has been happily ended in the face of

ORATION. 13

foreign hostility. Shall we name our most deserving
creditors'? It were a vain endeavor, for,

" The jewel that we find, we stoop aud take it,
Because we see it; but what we do not see
We tread upon, and never think of it."

The most distinguished generals had a host of
counterparts in the ranks ; the leader was a leader
only by virtue of followers ; the courage of the rear
waited on the boldness of the front. Every uniform
that covered a loyal heart hid a jewel — every jewel
was a gem. The people have set one of the most
brilliant in the front of the crown of government in
representation of the rest.

To all the defenders of the Union, by sea and by
land, a perpetual eulogium is due.

"When the gallant soldier, returned to his accus-
tomed paths of industry, seeks to participate in the
prosperity his service has bought, make room for
him. His interregnum of peril should not dam the
flow of fortune.

When the battered veteran, with disabled hands,
petitions the plethoric purse of trade to comfort
his half-drained life, let quick memory recall the
days when the Ship of State was in peril of wreck
and he saved her. He asks not charity. Pay him
his salvage.

14 JULY 5, 1869.

The sleeping dead have venerated graves, and the
reward of Heaven. Loving friends and a grateful
country keep their mantles green. When the smiling
bloom of Spring gladdens the earth, faithful comrades
cull her choicest blossoms, and in solemn, sympathetic
concourse, carry the sweet tokens of fraternal remem-
brance to the resting places of those whose glory it
was to die for their country. As the tender flower
touches the grassy mound of a fallen patriot, perhaps
a tear bears it company.

A view of the political world tinds the star of the
United States bright as the brightest in the shining
constellation of great powers. The sensitive balance
that weighs governments marks a gain for ours. The
jealous monarchies, whose counterfeit smiles gave place
to honest frowns behind the smoke of battle, would
have us forget their forgetfulness. They reflect that
the popular government, which has proved invulner-
able from within, may be impregnable from without.
The war has strengthened us. It has made dismem-
berment impossible. The attempted syncretism of
freedom and slavery no longer vexes us. The new
cement of common equality is impervious to the threat-
ening waves of any sea.

OKATION. 15

We harbor no apprehensions for our foreign rela-
tions. If the force of our fair demand against Eng-
land does not press its early discharge, it is a valuable
force to possess. There is, however, reason for con-
fidence that the availability of its possession need
never be taxed. If England has agreed with the
two Johnsons, who wore our authority, while they
failed to represent us, to a treaty whose welcome
was an unceremonious rejection, it does not argue a
denial of justice when justice is exacted. Means are
not wanting to obtain it; but an expenditure of
threats will not purchase conviction of the stock
from which w^e sprang. Lord Clarendon has lately
said, "he hoped what had occurred would promote
and not hinder the negotiations." Towards such a
disposition we may trust that Motley, succeeding the
distinguished Adams, after the brief interlude of our
non-representation, may approach with a dignified
freedom and courteous firmness which shall secure
an acceptable result.

We look from the high watch-tower of our Ee-
public upon foreign powers with tranquil assurance.

We observe England following, not by steps, but
by strides, the behests of the people. A monarchy,
the government finds its nobility a cumbrance.
Necessity is engrafting life peerages upon the tree of

16 JULY 5, 1869.

hereditary aristocracy. Nature has decreed that the
cion shall determine the fruit. The nobility of merit
is sapping the nobility of birth. The people are
dictating, and the government is modifying its
pohty.

France permits little repose to the coup d'etat-
crowned sentinel of the empire. The rent-service
he renders for the tenancy of the throne, is the
drudgery of interminable watchfulness. Would he
engage in the pleasing employment of " rectifying "
the boundaries of his territory — he must vratch its
uneasy capital. When his august neighbors went
out to battle, they could leave their doors open
toward France — the emperor was engaged at his
post. " Paris is France," and Paris is his avowed
enemy. The recent elections increase the burden
of his vigilance. He must do more than he has
done, more than any man can do for the advance-
ment of France, to dazzle her into blindness to her
fetters. In his perpetual vigils, one hand grasps the
throat of liberty. The endurance of that grip meas-
ures the present rule of France. It cannot last
long. The people demand, and there must follow
a modification of their government.

Spain is freeing herself from the corruption of
long-endured evils. She is casting down the rusty

ORATION. 17

bars to progress. She has driven her arbitrary
queen into an exile, where she is displaying the
wealth amassed from the wretchedness of unhappy
subjects. The experiment of Spain's tardy relief,
will claim the most judicious heed. Our sympathy
and best wishes should stretch out to the bruised
people, who have smitten tyranny in the face.

If we were to extend our observations further,
we should stUl follow the ruts of the wheels of
political change. We should recognize in every
foreign sky, the influence of our free atmosphere.

The present year has witnessed in serenity the
retirement of one who occupied the Presidential
Chair, and has viewed with profound satisfaction
the inauguration of a successor to Lincoln. The
Presidency has sought Grant : , he received it. He
has never solicited rank ; he has been rated by his
deeds. An indomitable leader, he asks only to fol-
low the will of the people. Honored by those
who have singled him out as their representative,
his evident integrity of purpose and calm determi-
nation in its pursuit should enlist unanimous esteem.

The reviving South will read in his elevation
the pledge of an equitable administration, and a
certain defence of loyalty.

3

]8 JULY 5, 1869.

The withdrawal from political life of the late
Secretary of State, has recently followed a long
term of valuable labor. His state and his country
have heavily assessed his untiring energy, his
abundant information and his sound judgment. His
important service as a sagacious, faithful statesman,
is entitled to the requital of liberal thanks.

A survey of our domestic condition discovers
auspicious omens on every side. The broad stream
of prosperity, which has never ceased to flow north
of the fields of rebellion, is swelling and enlarging
as it courses on.

Fate is obscuring the identity of the former South.
Her people no longer take counsel of their false
augurs. They no longer gather about the leaders
who took them to failure. Their old idols are
bereft of honor and denied confidence. The hand
of Fortune is remodelling the South for a future,
in which free and enlightened industry will win the
palm of progress and influence. The weight of
her new importance Avill, ere long, be felt through-
out the Union.

The waves of emigration continue to roll steadily
upon our shores. The pioneer emigrants, who
brought muscle to serve us in grappling for wealth,
are followed by those who bring ofi^erings of skill.

ORATION. 19

While the current from Ireland is unabated, the tide
from Germany and Northern Europe is outstripping
it. Emigration from England's intelligent classes is
also surging upon our borders. The Old World
sends us a town every week. Every recruit to our
population has a value. His removal is a loss to the
place of his nativity, upon whose means he has
grown, and a gain to us. Every day's labor he
brings is a contribution to our coffers. Our greatest
enterprises take shape through the toil of foreigners.
They keep close companionship with the spirit of
improvement as it marches over the country leaving
iron tracks for traffic to follow. They make bold
acquaintance with the virtue of our soil, and impress
it into productive exercise. They lend hard hands
to the workshop and the warehouse. The ready
absorption of the emigrant's capital proves its advan-
tage, and is suggestive of the richness of our unde-
veloped substance.

In all directions we spy enterprise crowding upon
enterprise. "The wave behind impels the wave
before." By the iron-edged route to the Golden
Gate great railroads are made by-paths. Already
our commerce is jeering at the resistance of Darien
to the friendly embrace of the Atlantic and the
Pacific. The art of surgery is threatening the band

20 JULY 5, 1869.

by which nature has tied the twin Americas like
the twins of Siam. The giant undertaking of yes-
terday is the pigmy of to-day.

In telling the promise of the country's future,
extraA'agance would be tameness,

" For thy vast bounties are so numberless,
That them or to conceal or else to tell
Is equally impossible."

After scanning the broad domain of national
sovereignty, we turn to our own Commonwealth with
affectionate pride. Though she has freely sent her
sons and her money to build up new territory, she
continues in the vanguard of States. She has
regarded with pleasure the increasing stature of
rival sisters, fostered by her capital. It may be,
however, that wholesome prudence is noAV dictating
a more rigid application of her means to the
irrigation of her own soil.

Her intelligence is undenied ; her political influence
is conspicuous ; the lustre of her credit is untar-
nished. In prudent charity, she is profuse ; in educa-
tion, unsparing ; in legislation, prodigal ; in her public
models of art, original ; and in tunnelling, a learner.

We are a law-enacting, law-abiding people. No
instruction of the " Declaration of the Rights of the

ORATION. 21

Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,"
is more faithfully observed than that which declares
that, " The Legislature ought frequently to assemble
for the redress of grievances, for correcting, strength-
ening, and confirming the laws, and for making new
laws, as the common good may require."

The legislature of the last six months has secured
the "common good "for six months to come in the
enactment of Five Hundred and Sixty-Nine " Acts
and Resolves." Imagine the consternation with which
such a record would fill Jonathan Swift, who, a cen-
tury and a half ago, said: "If books and laws con-
tinue to increase as they have done for fifty years
past, I am in some concern for future ages, how any
man will be learned, or any man a lawyer."

We have perfected political science to such a de-
gree that we make law enough in one day to sufiice
for that day and one more. While the community
exult in the guarantee of safety for half a year, the
student takes courage in the opportunity to master
the laws before they are abrogated.

The legislature of this year has set the seal of
assent to that amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, which declares that, " The right of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States, or by any

22 JULY 5, 1869.

State, on account of race, color, or previous condi-
tion of servitude." The " Fifteenth Amendment " cuts
at a stroke a Gordian Knot which the studied
theories of the wisest and most humane have
essayed to untie. After statesmen had tasked their
lives in the vain attempt to gently undo the knot
of slavery by gradual emancipation, it was finally
cut by the sword of war. It were better, our legis-
lators have said, to sever this last knot of political
inequality by the sword of peace. Those who had
misgivings must have done wisely to smother dis-
trust, in the decision to execute complete justice
without delay.

In our latest legislation touching commercial in-
terests, we have reason for congratulation. The
heavy demands of our great railroads for increased
facilities and extended connections indicate present
thrift, and a design to propitiate good fortune by
generous provisions. The readiness with which these
demands have been heard, and the sound liberality
which has been their response, demonstrate an ex-
panding appreciation of our business capacities and
necessities. Narrow jealousy of Boston, if it has
ever been entertained, has not found an asylum in
the last legislature. It has been at once conceded
that the importance of the capital vitally concerns

ORATION. 23

the Commonwealtli, and that in amplifying its
channels of trade, in magnifying its prominence as
a market, and in enlarging its space for growth, the
common welfare is promoted.

An absurd effort to transfer a department of the
City Government to the guardianship of the State,
to satisfy the ill-based prejudices of a few warped
minds, has met a swift rebuff, as severe as it was
merited.

A threat to make an example of Boston, for an
alleged sluggishness in the enforcement of a certain
law, was coldly denied the solace of a faint echo.
Whenever the eminence of our City Government
shall tempt an invidious attack, it should encounter
an indignant repulse in the deafening protests of
every citizen susceptible of honest pride, or the sen-
timent of justice. Though a subversion of the po-
lice functions of all our municipalities would escape
the odium of a blow at one only, the impolicy of
such a conquest by the State should condemn it.
The democracy which calls upon the individual to
contribute only the necessary allotment of his natural
liberty to society, upon the town to surrender only
essential powers to the State, and upon the States
to gauge their contribution of sovereignty by their

24 JULY 5, 1869.

compact, is worth more than a score of chameleon
statutes.

The wisdom of charging upon each community
the responsibility of preserving peace and order
within its limits finds its proof in the voluntary
establishment of the police organizations coveted
for the State. The owner is the most vigilant guard
of his treasure. Each community has the closest
interest in its own self-defence. If disease creeps
into the body, we invoke jEsculapius. We seek to
cure, not to kill. If abuses should steal into muni-
cipal administration, the people will engage in stern
pursuit of a cure. Not till our town governments
are bedridden, should they call for nurses from the
state hospitals.

Much time has been consecrated this year to a
" Chapter " of the Blue Book, whose chief recom-
mendation to favor is its liability to repeal. In
the Declaration of Eights, " temperance " is ac-
counted as one of the principles " absolutely
necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty,
and to maintain free government." This " Chapter,"
adopted after most solemn deliberation, in contempt
of this principle, has put a seductive intoxicant
under the protectorate of the State. By designed
omission, an acknowledged intoxicant is legally

OKATION. 25

considered non-intoxicating. Temperance repudiates
such a senseless fiction of law. It is but the
sorry ally of a party. Let the Muses hasten to
immortalize our State drink, for laws are transient.
Our statute books have long since ceased to wear
the title of " The Perpetual Laws of Massa-
chusetts." I think Scythia must have had prohi-
bitory legislation when Anacharsis said that " laws
were like cobwebs, where the small flies were
caught and the great break through." Extreme
legislation touching moral questions has seldom
purchased permanency. " Moderation is the silken
string running through the pearl chain of all
virtues." If, perchance, the cider cask should
prove weak armor; if the autumn yield of the
non-intoxicating intoxicant should fail to float the
new statute, it may be well to remember that,
" in medio tutissimus ibis."

The disposition of the "Female Suffrage" ques-
tion for a brief period, recalls our obhgation to the
legislature, for what has not been done.

The gentle persuasions and sweet threatenings of
those restive women, who sigh for entrance into the
"higher sphere" of caucuses and conventions, have
been received with a gallantry that must have
smoothed the ^-efusal of their petitions. Those
i

26 JULY5,1869.

relations of the sexes which nature has ordained,
and time approved, will govern us a little longer.
But nature is growing old-fashioned; experience
loses its value in an age of inventions, and any
average tyro in theology can explain away the Bible
to order. How soon man may be led to subordi-
nate himself to woman, for such would be the effect
of female enfranchisement in Massachusetts, some of
us dare not consider.

" New customs,
Though they be never so ridiculous,
Nay, let them be unmanly, yet are followed."

Timid men already feel the skirts of their gar-
ments lengthening into petticoats. Women should
not vote because God has not given them the power
to enforce their will, and law without means to
execute it is not law. Woman's strength is in her
weakness ; her defence is in her defencelessness. But
such strength and such defence will not sustain
governments. That man is a criminal who neglects
to provide the shelter of a roof for his wife, and
stand ready to defend it. Government is only the
shelter of society. Man must erect it, and defend
it. Woman's law is the influence of her virtue,
her modesty and her beauty, and that law, read at

ORATION. 27

the hearthstone, is transcribed in halls of legislation
by hands able to maintain it. Those who claim that
our laws would be purer if women voted, should
know that they are already better than society is.
Man legislates, not according to what he is, but
according to what he ought to be. Our laws are
as tender of the rights of women as they are
favorable to the welfare of men. The bounty of
our government is sufficient for all. It has made
Massachusetts a citadel in war, a garden in peace.
" God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

It is a congenial duty to direct a moment's reflec-
tion to our sterling city. It would be an attractive
diversion to invest fancy with light pinions and float
back to the Boston of yore. Imagination would
warm with novel interest in hovering over the nur-
sery in which our city grew from tender infancy to
chartered majority. It would delight in resigning
to the waves their old dominion, usurped by solid
buildings; in re-carpeting with green the pleasant
fields, invaded by crowded blocks of stone and brick ;
in coercing granite piles raised up by ambitious
trade to surrender their foundations to those broad

28 JULY 5, 1869.

mansions, whose doors opened to the traditional
luxury of spaciousness ; in replanting those little
oases, whose now heavy laden soil once knew only
the delicate burden of flowers ; in giving back South
Boston, and ceding the beautiful Highlands to the
ghost of Roxbury. We should revel in an Asmo-
dean flight over the Boston in which a century ago
to-day the General Court was contending for the
inseparable connection of taxation and representation.

But the Boston which surrounds us, so rapidly
extending its outlines of warehouses and dwellings
that their recognition is conditional upon active ob-
servation, so thoroughly repairing the errors of the
past, that narrow streets are suddenly lost in broad
avenues, and little courts in crowded thoroughfares,
is the Boston which wins our thoughts in this hour.

Of our culture and refinement, of our fidelity to
the virtuous principles of early days, let others
speak. The city's hospitality — to mention it here
were to lessen it. It is told in almost every tongue.

But the citizens of Boston may well felicitate them-
selves upon the fast spread of roofs, covering pros-
perous trade, productive toil and happy homes, and
upon the notable enterprises which are stimulating
activity at every point.

ORATION. 29

We are fortunate in a City Government, whose
judgment does not serve their doubts.

" Oar doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt."

They have perceived that municipal growth prop-
erly appeals for improvements, and that bold im-
provements draw on bold growth. They have not
doubted, but let the wisdom of liberal expenditures
justify the rate of taxation. To the city, taxation is
galvanism. If it excites the citizen, it is an extra
gain. Rust consumes the vitals of a community.
Boston must teach well her children, succor gener-
ously her unfortunate, defend warily the public
health, maintain an efficient police (the State permit-
ting), make damp places dry, hills level, crooked
places straight, narrow places wide, adorn and multi-
ply her parks, foster trade, entice commerce, keep
her " latch-string out," celebrate National Indepen-
dence, and have "contingent expenses"; and for
this the assessors' battery must be adequately
charged. When the battery becomes feeble, citizens
may hope for a millennium, but should suspect
decline.

No recent event is so pregnant with future advan-
tage as the union of Dorchester with Boston. Im-

30 JULY5,1869.

perious necessities, prognosticated in population
rapidly augmenting, in the swelling hum of traffic
outgrowing its familiar limits, and in the loud-voiced
murmurs of industrial employments increasing in
extent and variety, have compelled Boston to besiege
in amity the territory of her neighbors.

The peaceful capitulation of Dorchester has been
no less a victory for her than a triumph for us.
She no longer opposes the barrier of her boundaries
to our expansion : our magnitude no longer over-
shadows her, but is hers. Dorchester's lungs will
breathe for Boston ; Boston's heart will pulsate for
Dorchester. Our welcome sister but contributes a
beautiful emerald to the diadem she is henceforth to
wear

As we embraced Eoxbury with warm greetings
last year, as we salute Dorchester in loving recep-
tion this year, let us hope to extend the courtesies
of our hospitality to Brookline next year. Annex-
ation is our true policy, wisely recognized by the
Commonwealth. Aggregation of numbers is essential
to the fulness of the importance, the authority
and the worth which should be destined for
Boston. Humanity clusters. Throngs attract indi-
viduals. The larger the population, the faster
will it gather. But space is an indispensable

ORATION. 31

pre-requisite to wholesome aggregation. Give Boston
room, make timely provision for healthful increase,
perpetuate her good government, and those who
come after us may wield an influence whose power
shall govern an empire of usefulness, and whose
usefulness shall exalt its power. This generation
owes the next a munificent heritage.

" A setting sun
Should leave a track of glory in the skies."

The signs of Boston's future eclipse her present,
as her present outshines the past. But situated as
she is, she can attain her meridian prosperity only
by energetic development of every resource. Muni-
cipal vigor must constantly attend, and sometimes
launch private enterprise. If, however, her riches
are but the gradual gain of exertion, she will re-
member that when Jupiter sends Plutus, he limps,
when Pluto sends him, he runs.

Education, the mail of popular government, is
wrought out in schools whose excellence is Boston's
chief honor. School-houses are esteemed our best
arsenals, instructors our best armorers. The jealous
advancement of learning will be one of the surest
guarantees of the future of our hope.

But wealth is corrupting, learning is hollow, and

32 JULY5,18G9.

art is impure where the Divinity is unacknowledged.
He alone can intrench our present fortune, or assure
a splendid future. Let accumulating wealth be
directed by intelligence, let intelligence be inspired
by religion, and upon a soil to which patriotism is
indigenous, the Boston of hereafter, from an impos-
ing grandeur, shall gratefully turn back to us, as
we reverently remember those who planted and
watered our city in days gone by.